


More than Chocolates

by Saltbread



Category: IDOLiSH7 (Video Game)
Genre: F/M, Gaku and Tsumugi make sweets together at Fonte Chocolat, I suppose you could call this a romance-comedy idk, Rated T for swearing, TRIGGER-centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-03-21
Packaged: 2019-10-28 05:35:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,462
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17781548
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Saltbread/pseuds/Saltbread
Summary: Valentine's Day is coming soon, and Tsumugi is bound to receive chocolates from IDOLiSH7, TRIGGER, Re:vale, and possibly more.This may be a good thing to her, but to him, it's terrible news.Will Gaku be able to differentiate his gift from everyone else's obligatory chocolates?With a little (or loads) of help from Tenn, Ryuu, and some other unexpected people along the way, he just might be able to..."New chapters weekly for a month lasting from Valentine's to White Day!" was the initial plan, but this will no longer be the case due to an additional chapter.





	1. Sherlock Holmes

**Author's Note:**

> Hello there! There's something you should know before you start reading this fic, and I have to tell you what it is. 
> 
> Although this is a GakuTsumu fic, it also isn't a GakuTsumu fic. Like yeah, it's gonna be about GakuTsumu. However, the plot will mainly focus on Gaku and his relationships with TRIGGER and some others. For those of you who've read my previous fic (Next Harmony!), it's kinda like how the relationships are there, but it's TRIGGER instead of IDOLiSH7.
> 
> I won't betray more now, but you've been warned! Y'know, in case you came looking for five chapters of GakuTsumu. (But there'll be one, I promise. Of course there will be one.)
> 
> But hey, since you're already here, why not try reading this? Perhaps you'll like it...
> 
> And with that, please enjoy! :D
> 
> Oh - and all comments and feedback are greatly appreciated, so feel free to do so! :)

Being a collective group, TRIGGER typically landed gigs where they worked together, whether it be a live, a filming, or just a recording. Although that was the case, there would nonetheless occasionally be some work in which either one or two of the members were involved, but not all three of them. Even rarer still was an entire day where all three of them had absolutely nothing on their schedules.

Today was one of those rare days.

Like how most of these days generally went, this one was also spent by all three of them at Tsunashi Ryuunosuke's place. They were doing nothing much; in fact, they had done almost nothing, but there was nothing that had needed to be done, in the first place. As always, they had gathered just for the sake of companionship off-work.

Their simple lunch of kitsune soba cooked by Tenn with Gaku's freshly made noodles was just over, and they were casually doing their own thing around the dining table, leaving the washing of the dishes to their host who had offered to do it for them. 

At present, Tenn was reading some form of self-help book, and his reason for doing so was something Yaotome Gaku would probably never be able to comprehend. Gaku himself was watching [some random hamster video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-0HRs0FY2U) on his tablet that had been sent to him on rabbit chat from a very unexpected IDOLiSH7 member by mistake.

However, no matter how hard he tried to focus his attention on the adorably cute creature in the video, he was simply too distracted to do so. There were largely two reasons for this.

The first of these was a thought that had suddenly occurred to him no more than three minutes ago. It had, soon enough, transformed from a mere passing thought to a genuine worry that bugged him to the extent that he could barely focus on anything else.

_ Should I...? What should I...? How...should I? When... _

"Gaku," interrupted Kujou Tenn, the second cause of his distraction, eyes still on his book. "That's not going to make the cut."

Although he had been staring hard into his tablet, Gaku could tell from his peripheral vision that he had been the subject of Tenn's extremely intense scrutiny for the past three minutes. It made him feel uneasy, and he stared into the screen even harder.

"What won't?" he growled into it, not bothering to look up across the table to return Tenn's intense gaze.

"Valentine's Day is around the corner. She's going to receive chocolates from at least ten other guys besides you. What differentiates your gift from everyone else's that'll make you stand out?"

"Wait, who?" interrupted Ryuunosuke from the kitchen, hopelessly clueless. "Gaku, there's someone you've fallen head over heels in love with?"

Gaku sighed. Leave it to Ryuunosuke to phrase things in the most embarrassing of ways. He ignored the latter for a moment. It wasn't like Ryuunosuke didn't know the fact, anyway. It probably just slipped his mind again, like the absentminded person he was.

He shot a glance at Tenn, who was sitting directly opposite him. "Kujou Tenn. I've got so many questions for you right now. First of all, how the hell did you know what I was worrying about?"

"Don't you know? I'm Sherlock Holmes," Tenn replied lightly, though his voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Gaku rolled his eyes. "Prove it."

"Well, you were looking at your tablet, but you took out your phone as if to check the time. You could've seen the time from your tablet's screen, though, so I assume it was the date you were after. My assumptions were solidified when you started counting on your fingers, the same number of days we have left until Valentine's. You smiled a little, but then it turned into a troubled frown when the crumpled piece of candy wrapper that Ryuu discarded on the table captured your attention. You were thinking of chocolates, and I knew you were considering making them from scratch when you followed up by glancing in the direction of the kitchen. From then on you weren't focusing on your screen even though you were looking at it, so I concluded you're worried over whether you should."

From the kitchen, Ryuunosuke gasped in shocking amazement and began to emit small sputtering noises. 

Gaku himself wasn't going to surrender just yet, though. "How did you know I wasn't focusing on my screen anymore?"

"Idiot. The tablet auto-locked itself and the screen went dark, but you were still looking into it." Tenn shook his head. "And before you ask, I know of that although I'm sitting opposite you, simply because your necklace stopped reflecting the light that your screen was emitting."

Gaku glanced at his screen, surprised to see that it had indeed turned dark. Unlocking it showed that the video he had ceased to pay attention to halfway through had already ended. Ryuunosuke, finished with the dishes, went over to him and expressed an interest in [what was on the screen](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-0HRs0FY2U), gasping at the hamster that now had a ridiculously flat appearance. Gaku pressed 'play' and handed him the tablet.

"Fine," he continued, turning back to Tenn. "You win, stalker."

Tenn shut his book, leaned back satisfactorily into the sofa, and smiled a little. "Naturally."

It angered Gaku that Tenn was calling him out on his love issues like this, and even more so that he was so triumphant about it, but he let it slide this time. Although Tenn did criticise his ideas, a large part of him wanted to believe that it was because he wanted to help. As much of a brat as he was, Kujou Tenn never criticised anyone without purpose, after all.

"So," Gaku started, "Who is this tenth person who's going to give her chocolates?" 

"Ryuu," answered Tenn immediately.

"Who, me?!"

"So the ninth person is you?" he probed.

"No, it's Momo-san."

"Ah yeah, so it's Tsumugi we're talking about..." Ryuunosuke mused to [the flat hamster](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-0HRs0FY2U).

"Lies." Gaku smirked. "You're totally going to give her chocolates too, you just don't want to admit it. I'm guessing you're not the eighth on your own list, either."

"No, it's Ogami-san." Gaku nodded in understanding, and a small smile spread across Tenn's lips. "Though, yeah, I confess I wouldn't mind gifting her some chocolates, myself. Obligatory ones, of course."

"Um," Ryuunosuke spoke, pausing the video. "If I could give my thoughts? Something tells me that their President would go after Ogami-san. If the latter gave Tsumugi chocolates. Just saying."

"You're right."

"Probably Yuki-san, then."

"Oh yeah, we forgot Yuki-san."

_ "You _ forgot Yuki-san, not me, dumbass."

"Excuse me? _You're_ the dumbass."

"Why, you little piece of s-"

"Who here's the p-"

_ "You!" _

"Please stop fighting!" yelled Ryuunosuke desperately. "Gaku, drop it, he's trying to _help_ you!"

Gaku dropped it, whatever 'it' was in the first place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all, if you guys don't check out that video Gaku and Ryuu were watching you're seriously missing out :D I've linked it so many times in the chapter, but [here it is again for good measure](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-0HRs0FY2U) (2 minutes, 9 seconds).
> 
> Anyway, I was going to say this at the beginning, but it'd turn out too long - Happy Valentine's Day! For those of you lucky enough to have significant others, I hope that you all have had a wonderful one :) 
> 
> As for the rest of us, I hope you've had a great day in general. If you've been wishing for something to happen, I hope that that something has happened, whether it be receiving chocolates from your crush, having them receive yours, successfully asking them out, or getting asked out. Don't lose hope! My crush of eight years just did for the very first time. *screams excitedly into pillow* (Yeah, eight years. I've been too weak to confess. Is it even called a crush at this point?)


	2. The Tsunashi-Kujo Relationship Consultancy

"So, then. Tell us your game plan."

The trio had relocated to Ryuunosuke's bedroom, where they could discuss the situation at hand in far more relaxed a manner. Tenn settled himself comfortably into the study chair, while Ryuunosuke hugged his legs as he sat on the wooden tile flooring, leaning on the closet behind him.

Gaku was sprawled on Ryuunosuke's bed, staring at the ceiling. If he had to be absolutely honest, he didn't have a plan at all. Not a solidly defined one, at least. He was a man of action, and had intended to just figure things out as they happened. Now that his group members had called him out on it, however, he realised just how overly simplistic that was.

There were so many girls out there, his fans who would absolutely love to spend Valentine's with him. But this was Tsumugi. Whether or not she felt the same, this was the one girl that he'd most absolutely want to spend that special day with.

The one and only.

What was his game plan, then?

"I've no idea, Tenn, Ryuu." Gaku admitted.

There was no way he could bring himself to say what he had initially intended to: Chocolates and a handwritten card. That seemed so _normal._ And 'normal' wasn't what he felt for her at all.

He hesitated for a bit, pondering his available courses of action. "I think I may need help."

Tenn inhaled sharply, and there was a long pause while the fact that Gaku was absolutely serious about this slowly sank in. Ryuunosuke's eyes widened.

Gaku belatedly realised that in their considerable number of years as TRIGGER, this was the very first time he'd actively sought his groupmates for help of any kind (and it turned out to be about his relationship issues, of all things). Tenn seemed to have noticed this as well, for he was in a rare moment of dumbfoundedness. Instead, Ryuunosuke spoke first, and he was surprisingly serious.

"Gaku, the most we'll do is hopefully give you some advice, or inspiration to come up with ideas. You're going to regret it if you ask us to help you formulate your game plan. This is your thing, and if we contribute to it more than you do, the end result isn't going to end up satisfying no matter how successful it may turn out."

"...That makes sense."

"You probably don't have anything in mind now, do you?" asked Tenn. Gaku shook his head. "In that case," he continued, "try to think of something now. And vocalise your thoughts while you're at it, so we know what you're thinking. We'll ask you questions or give opinions as you go along."

"Sure. Thanks, man, really."

"Take your time, we'll wait," Ryuunosuke added.

Gaku probably never felt more thankful that he had such considerate groupmates than he did at this moment. He felt that it was justified that that this was the case, however, for how exceptionally different everyone was behaving right now. He himself was being far more reliant than usual, Ryuunosuke was putting deep thought into things, and Tenn...Tenn actually agreed to help.

It was such a rare occasion, he had to make extra good use of the opportunity. Gaku knew that they wouldn't get anywhere if he said nothing, so he tried to, although his mind was empty.

"Well, when thinking of Valentine's, what comes to mind is definitely chocolates, right? But as Tenn said, almost everyone would probably be going for the storebought variety, so I guess I should make mine by hand. I wonder if that'll be enough...?"

He paused. This wasn't much, but it was better to start with that than nothing. As if to prompt them for opinions, he got up from Ryuunosuke's bed and sat on it with his legs crossed, eyeing his groupmates hesitantly. They didn't disappoint.

"Enough for what?" enquired Tenn.

"I think he meant to ask what your objective was," Ryuunosuke clarified hastily, before Gaku decided to reject their help on second thought no thanks to Tenn's rudeness. "What would handmade chocolates be sufficient for, that storebought chocolates aren't?"

This was easy enough to answer. "I want to make her happy."

"Chocolates from guys in general would make a girl happy," Ryuunosuke pointed out. "And yet you want to differentiate yours from everyone else's. What do you wish to get from that?" He asked, his voice gentle.

"Um..." Gaku trailed off. Perhaps that question wasn't as easy as he had thought.

Tenn shook his head disapprovingly. "Let's not ignore the elephant in the room any longer. You want Tsumugi to know that your chocolates are more than mere obligatory ones, don't you?"

He was right. However, if Gaku were to open his mouth to speak right now nothing would come out of it other than protests and a huge amount of profanity directed at Tenn. He made the wise decision to keep it shut.

"Yes, you do," Tenn continued, dismissing his own question as if it were nothing more than a rhetorical one with only that one correct answer by this point. "We all saw your glorious failure of an attempt at asking her out while you were being Yamamura-san. _That_ is your final objective."

The serious facade of Ryuunosuke could no longer restrain his excitement, and he whooped. "YA WANNA ASK HER FOR A DATE-"

"Shut up!" exclaimed Gaku.

"All right, now that we've got that out of the way," said Tenn carelessly. "Do you recall why she turned you down, Yamamura-san?"

"Because she doesn't know a stranger like me well enough," answered Yamamura-san.

"Do you think she knows you well enough?"

Gaku considered this. "I'm not sure, actually. We've mostly talked in situations where I simply was an idol, and her the manager of another idol group." He raised his eyebrows. "But why are we talking about this? All I want to do now is give her some chocolates."

"We three all know you're not one to just look at things in the short term, so I just thought we might as well," laughed Ryuunosuke sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. In response, Gaku collapsed backwards so that he was lying on the bed once again, although his legs were still crossed.

"To conclude, here are some elements of our plan so far," summarised Tenn. "One, for the chocolates to be handmade. Two, for her to know they're more than obligatory. Three, for her to somehow know you better through your present-"

"Nah, that doesn't matter," said Gaku to the ceiling. "All I ask for is for my present to be memorable."

"Three, for your present to leave a lasting impression of you on her," Tenn corrected.

"No, that's not what I meant!"

Tenn ignored him. "Any other questions?"

"Yes!" Ryuunosuke raised his hand as if he were in class. "Gaku, do you know how to make chocolates by hand?"

Gaku nodded. "Yeah. I can make soba, after all."

"Cooking and baking are nothing alike," said Tenn seriously.

"Yeah, I know. I learnt that after baking a cake for Kujou Tenn-sama." Gaku rolled his eyes, and Tenn laughed despite himself.

"Baking a cake is hardly the same as making chocolates, though," Ryuunosuke said nervously. "Did you have experience with the latter?"

"No..."

"I haven't, myself. Sorry that I can't help..."

"Me too..."

The three of them frowned in thoughtful silence. Gaku supposed that searching for a recipe online would be a good option, but he was a perfectionist, and had neither the time nor resources to try out multiple recipes until one was to his fancy. Valentine's Day was fast approaching, and he needed to get a reliable source accurately on his first try.

There was only one way to it, then.

"Looks like I'll be troubling _them_ again." He laughed.

"Yaotome Gaku. That's a good idea, but I pray to the heavens that by that you mean his parents, and not him. We're not letting news of your crush spread anywhere beyond the three of us."

"I know, I'm not stupid. Of course I meant that."

"Who're you talking about?" asked Ryuunosuke curiously.

Gaku smiled secretively. "I'm gonna call them on loudspeaker now, so you'll know once the call gets through."

After Gaku's lazy struggle to reach his phone on the desk located ridiculously far from the bed that was doomed to fail from the start, Ryuunosuke left his spot on the ground to retrieve it, and joined the former on his bed. Gaku rolled over so he was facing down, and propped himself up on his elbows, phone in hand. It took some time scrolling through his contacts list before he found what he was looking for.

Tenn got up from his chair and joined them the bed. Although Gaku was the one making the call, he went to Ryuunosuke's side instead. Ryuunosuke shifted to his left to make space for him, and they all eyed Gaku's phone patiently while being propped up on their elbows as it rang.

An awfully familiar voice picked up on the third ring. "Hello! This is Fonte Chocolat. Anything I can do for you today?"

"Wha-MMMMMPH!!" As if he had predicted this outcome, Tenn immediately pounced on Ryuunosuke and muffled his exclamation with a pillow before it caught the attention of the person on the opposite side of the line.

"Hello?" repeated Izumi Mitsuki from the other end. "Hello, is anyone there?"

He was someone they all agreed Gaku shouldn't speak to, so he didn't respond. The trio stayed silent.

"That's strange..." Mitsuki muttered. "Hello?"

Gaku cut off the call with a poker face, and Tenn stopped burying Ryuunosuke's face with a pillow. The latter coughed violently.

"Tenn! You both could've just told me instead of surprising me then preventing me from expressing my surprise!" Ryuunosuke whined, but the other two simply laughed.

"So...you wanted to ask Mitsuki-kun and Iori-kun's parents for a recipe?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's right," confirmed Gaku. "I'm confident that they'd be sure to help."

After his stint at Fonte Chocolate for the variety show NEXT Re:vale had ended, he had started to visit them at their store relatively frequently. The both of them were always ecstatic to see him again, and despite multiple efforts to turn them down, had never failed to shower him with lots of sweets and love.

It was purely by chance that Nanase Riku was the one who had picked out his occupation for him, that it just so happened that he had chosen a patisserie for the job, and that it was at Fonte Chocolat of all places, but Gaku was really glad that it turned out that way. Of course, a part of it was because he needed their help right now, but it was also because they were so nice and he always felt welcome with them. He was more or less a friend of theirs, if not a bonus son. It seemed really lame to feel this way, but he missed them.

"I'll try calling again later when I get back. Hopefully it'll be one of their parents who'll pick up the next call."

Ryuunosuke slapped him on his back. "All the best!"

Tenn nodded. "Good luck. Let us know how it goes."

"Alright!" said Ryuunosuke, with an air of finality. "Let's discuss what to do after you've talked to them. I hereby declare that the first advice session of Yaotome Gaku with the Tsunashi-Kujo Relationship Consultancy is officially over!" His elbows gave way and he plopped face-down onto the pillow below him.

Tenn laughed. "What the hell was that?! But that'd be a hundred bucks, Gaku," he added, playing along. "Love advice from us doesn't come cheap."

"Hey, you guys volunteered to help me!" protested Gaku.

"Of course we were joking," Ryuunosuke assured, getting back up. "We did it because you needed it. It's not exactly often that you'd ask us for help, you know? If ever."

"...Thank you, guys. For not laughing at my embarrassing troubles. For actually helping. Thanks a lot."

"Don't mention it," Tenn replied, and Gaku looked up to see a smile that actually looked completely genuine spread across his face.

The three of them lay together side by side comfortably on Ryuunosuke's bed, all thoughtfully silent, and yet contented.

After all, it'd been a long time since they'd last bonded like this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love adding canon material to stories - Not only the whole Fonte Chocolat stint, but it's also mentioned in Gaku's job experience rabbit chat that he had indeed baked a cake for Tenn, addressed in that ridiculous manner!


	3. The Less, The Merrier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've never written on such a tight schedule before, so I'm coming up with chapter titles on the fly. Please excuse me. I'll change them if I think of better ones HAHA

Gaku was afraid.

Him, Tenn and Ryuu were supposed to gather at his place this evening as a follow-up meeting to yesterday's one, but another person had showed up uninvited at his doorstep only an hour before TRIGGER was to meet. Not that it was unexpected given the situation. This was all his fault.

Yes, Gaku was afraid, both of this person and of Kujo Tenn's reaction to his mistake.

"Yaotome-san, please let me in," requested his guest. "We need to talk."

Sweat ran profusely down Gaku's face, and he eyed them nervously. Despite their words, he didn't feel like he was attacked, so he conceded, although he fumbled with the lock on his gate as he did so. It wasn't like he could turn them down, anyway. Not after they'd made the effort to come all the way here.

"Just sit here and wait for me, okay?" instructed Gaku, gesturing to a sofa behind him. "I have to get something done real quick, won't be long. In the meantime, coffee or tea?"

"Coffee," was the reply. "Black, without sugar."

Gaku quickly poured a drink to their liking, and made off for his bedroom. Once he had ensured twice that his door was indeed locked, he went to the furthest corner of his room and hurriedly dialed a contact on his phone.

On hindsight, he should have totally done this last night.

"Hey Gaku, what's up?"

"Hello, Ryuu," said Gaku in a small voice. "I fucked up."

* * *

The first thing Gaku did once he returned home from Ryuunosuke's the day before was to check the time, and whether Fonte Chocolat was still open. It was a close shave - they thankfully were, if only for another hour and a half.

He allowed himself a quick shower before a second attempt at calling them. It would help him think through his request and how to present it to them in a reasonable manner. They were running a business after all, and the chances of them willingly sharing one of their own recipes with an outsider were not very high.

Once he'd sufficiently dried himself, he made for his room with his phone in hand, dialling the number for the second time in that day.

This time, the phone was answered only six full rings later.

"Hi! It's Fonte Chocolat. Anything we can do for you today?" asked the voice of a woman, not exactly familiar but recognisable nonetheless.

"Izumi-kaasan," said Gaku. "Is that you?"

"Oh! If it isn't Gaku-kun!" exclaimed Mrs Izumi. Then, presumably to her husband beside him as her voice was somewhat muffled, "Hey dear, Gaku-kun's on the phone! Gaku-kun, do you mind if I put this on speaker? He wants to hear from you too!"

Gaku couldn't help smiling at her usual enthusiasm. "Sure."

"Hey, Yaotome-kun. How's everything?" asked Mr Izumi.

"You haven't been down to visit us for ages!" added his wife. "Oh, but don't feel pressured to! We know you're busy. We see you on television every day, after all."

"For our sons mostly, but yeah," Mr Izumi clarified, and they both laughed.

"Hey, Izumi-toosan. I'm doing well," answered Gaku. "I'll make sure to drop by sometime, maybe bring Tenn along. You haven't met him, but Ryuu, too." He had a feeling that Ryuunosuke would hit it right off with the Izumis. They were all cheerful people.

"We'll be waiting." Gaku could imagine Mr Izumi nodding his firm nod of approval on the other end of the line. "So, anything we can do for you, Yaotome-kun? You've come to see us in person so many times, but this is the first time you've called. Is there something urgent?"

Gaku froze. He had intended to ask them for the favour, but having them bring it up to him first left him somewhat unprepared.

"Ah, well..." He trailed off, but eventually convinced himself to continue. He wouldn't be able to face Tenn and Ryuunosuke if he turned tail and ran at this point. "Um, I kind of have a request of you both, if that's alright."

"Sure, anything for you!"

Gaku began pacing his room nervously. The fact that they had agreed to it before hearing what it was made things difficult to just ask for a recipe straight out. He had to find a way to present it in a less direct manner, fast.

"Well...I understand it's a very busy time for you all, given that _that_ day is coming," he said carefully. "Apologies for disrupting your work time, but I kind of need to learn how to make chocolates by hand-"

"Oh! That's marvellous-"

"Shh, let him finish."

"I was wondering if, by any chance...you could share some tips or advice with me on how to go about doing that, if not a recipe?" Gaku finished awkwardly, still walking around his room in circles.

The prolonged silence on the other end of the line that ensued made him stop.

"My, Gaku-kun!" cried Mrs Izumi. "How wonderful! You've found a person you wish to gift chocolates to?"

"Don't be silly, dear. He's probably intending to make them for his groupmates."

"Did _you_ give your best friends handmade chocolates when you were young, _huh_?" Mrs Izumi retorted.

"Actually, it's..." Gaku felt his face heat up, and his pace quickened. "...for a girl."

Mrs Izumi's responding squeal at the other end of the line was so loud, he had to bring his phone away from his ear. "Is it _her_?" she asked excitedly.

Gaku was confused. "Who?" They couldn't have messed him up with another person, could they?

"Mitsuki and Iori's manager, Tsumugi," Mr Izumi answered, much to Gaku's surprise.

"How..." Gaku trailed off mid-question, stopping in his tracks. He remembered now; it was all coming back to him.

That final day at Fonte Chocolat, where Mr Izumi had invited him out to drink at that izakaya after work had ended. When he didn't have it in him to reject the multiple glasses of sake he'd been poured. When, perfectly sober as he was, he'd determined that it'd be fine to share the secret identity of his crush with someone he'd barely meet ever again, someone he could trust with his secrets. Mr Izumi's children were celebrities too, after all, and he most certainly didn't seem like one to gossip.

Gaku sat down on the edge of his bed, and found himself questioning now if he were truly perfectly sober that day. He knew that, despite appearing perfectly normal, his tendency to share too much about himself would appear with one drink too many. It was why he often restrained himself, and always held back despite his high tolerance level whenever Tsumugi was present. The only exception was when he was over at Ryuunosuke's place and only them and Tenn were around. Nonetheless, he'd still not have it in him to reject any glass of alcohol Mr Izumi would pour even if he could predict the outcome.

"Don't worry, Yaotome-kun," assured Mr Izumi. "I've never told anyone about it, not even my wife."

"But Izumi-kaasan said-"

"It was how you kept sneaking glimpses of her, and they way you smiled when she looked your way," replied Mrs Izumi. "It's women's instinct, Gaku-kun. My kids have never behaved like this before, but I can still tell."

Being raised largely by his father and then working mostly with boys, Gaku didn't know much about this 'women's instinct', save for the few times his manager talked about it. He wished Tsumugi had it. Sadly, it seemed like she didn't.

"Well, I'm all for helping a man in distress, but my job is only to taste test sweets," continued Mrs Izumi apologetically. "Since my dear's the one who crafts them and creates new recipes, he's the one with all the rights to decide if he should help you. What do you think, dear?"

"Mm? Sure. And I'll do better than that, of course. How about I teach you in person?" Mr Izumi suggested.

"What?!" Gaku shot up from where he was sitting immediately. "No, no, it's fine, it's fine! You both are really busy during this period, aren't you?! It's Valentine's Day we're talking about!"

"Don't be silly!" laughed Mrs Izumi. "He just wants an extra pair of hands for help, that cheeky guy!"

"What's wrong with that?" Mr Izumi defended. "It's a good idea. We'll be closed for walk-ins in the week leading up to Valentine's, anyway. You won't be spotted by our customers."

"You'll be closed for Valentine's?!" asked Gaku in shock. "But it's Valentine's!"

"We always have been! Business is so good that preorders just keep coming in during this period, and it's more fun and challenging on our side to do personalised orders. So we encourage our customers to preorder instead, and turn down walk-ins!"

"The recent challenge in the past years ever since Mitsuki and Iori have left was to keep up with the orders since our manpower has halved," explained Mr Izumi. "And business has increased, mind you, now that they're idols, and our patisserie has become more popular thanks to them."

"So," said Mrs Izumi. "What do you say? We teach you what you'd like to learn, and you can help us out! It's a win-win, isn't it?"

"Well, if I'm really not going to be a burden..."

"How about you bring Takanashi-san along, too?" asked Mr Izumi suddenly.

"Huh?!" Gaku yelped.

Mrs Izumi giggled. "Of course he's pulling your leg, Gaku-kun! Aren't you, my dear?"

"Well, as a matter of fact, I'm not."

There was complete silence. On both ends of the line.

"Do you remember, dear?" asked Mr Izumi. "Try and recall."

More silence.

"Ohh," said Mrs Izumi presently.

"Um," Gaku started hesitantly, suspicious. "What's this about?"

"Listen, Gaku-kun," Mrs Izumi spoke conversationally. "That's how we met. We got paired up in a sweets-making workshop."

"I'm not suggesting anything," clarified Mr Izumi. "Anything else other than you bring Takanashi-san along."

"That's impossible." Gaku laughed a pained laugh.

"Just try to ask her!"

Gaku considered the possibility. It hurt to shoot down both Mrs Izumi's request and his own hopes, but he did it anyway. "She'll definitely reject me."

Mr Izumi coughed. "I'm shorthanded."

"Just me alone would already be a huge burden-"

Mr Izumi coughed louder. "Our shop is not open for business from the eighth to fourteenth of February, and these dates will be fine. If your schedule is regrettably unable to fit any of those, you're welcome to find us on Wednesdays, where we are also always closed and only cater to preorders. Like I said, I'm shorthanded, and if you fail to bring me an extra pair of hands I will refuse to accede to your request for help. Do I make myself clear?"

Gaku was instantly reminded of Izumi Iori. So _this_ was where he'd inherited his seriousness from.

"...Yes, sir."

"All the best," said Mr Izumi, much more candidly this time. "Just let us know when you can make it."

"...Right."

"Great! We'll be waiting to hear from you, then!"

"H-hang on!" Gaku frantically called out to them before they cut off the connection. "Could you, um...keep this within us? Please?"

"You mean not tell our kids, right? Of course! Your secret's safe with us, as it always has been. Right, dear?"

Mr Izumi didn't respond. "...Dear?"

"...I apologise, Yaotome-kun. We must have been too absorbed in conversation to notice. Iori's been here in the same room as us, doing his homework as we're speaking. I'm really sorry."

Gaku's insides turned to ice. He wondered if Iori wouldn't be present had he not just thought of the devil a minute ago. It probably wouldn't have changed anything, but he regretted the thought nonetheless.

"I hope this doesn't affect your decision to ask us for help. We'll still be waiting."

"I'm sure he won't breathe a word of it to anyone!" insisted Mrs Izumi. "I'll spank him if he does!" she declared.

"You've never spanked him before," Mr Izumi pointed out.

"Yes, because he hasn't done anything spank-worthy yet! So don't worry!"

"Uh...right. Thanks."

The phone line went dead, and Gaku dived under the covers of his bed in extreme embarrassment.

* * *

"That's...a major screw-up," commented Ryuunosuke, for the lack of a better reply. 

"Izumi-otouto's here now. In my house."

"What?!"

"He showed up right in front of my doorstep!" whispered Gaku into the phone, agitated. "I couldn't just not let him in!"

Ryuunosuke chuckled. "Maybe he's looking for a spanking from his parents?"

Gaku wasn't amused. "It's not funny, Ryuu. He knows I'm after his manager. _I'm_ about to be spanked here, god. Help me out here."

"Don't worry, I'm already on my way. I'll try to get there ASAP so that things aren't awkward for you." Ryuunosuke paused. "I'll reach in about twenty minutes. Does he know we're meeting you?"

"No, I haven't said anything..." Gaku gasped. "Ryuu, _Tenn_. Tenn's going to be mad if he discovers this."

"Call him now and warn him first?"

"Are you an idiot?" Gaku raised his voice a little, but hastily brought it back to a whisper. "I'm not asking for a double spanking if I can help it!"

"Get it over and done with, then he won't be surprised once he's here. He isn't going to be angry at you, anyway," claimed Ryuunosuke. "At least, I don't think so."

"...Fine. I'll see how things go."

"See ya." The phone clicked.

Gaku sighed and returned the phone to his pocket. He'd make a call to Tenn, but he'd deserted his guest for long enough that he should return to check back on him. He'd just have to settle for sending a rabbit chat message instead.

Walking back to the living room as slowly as he could, Gaku prayed that an opportunity would somehow appear for him to avoid a conversation with his uninvited guest. Iori turned to look at him as he entered, and placed his half-drunk cup of coffee on the table with a straight face. Gaku joined him on the adjacent sofa, hoping that his nervousness didn't show.

He fiddled with the phone in his pocket.

"So, Yaotome-san," started Iori. "I think we both know why I'm here, so let's cut to the chase."

Any last trace of courage that Gaku had to drop Tenn a message left him once Iori spoke. One scary talking-to by someone younger than him was enough, he didn't need another.

"Go ahead, Izumi-otouto. I'm listening." He wished he didn't need to listen, but he didn't have a choice here.

"I heard that you made a call to my parents yesterday," said Iori. "In fact, I overheard the contents of it. Everything."

Whatever prayers Gaku had been making at that point in time seemed to have worked, for the doorbell rang. He thankfully excused himself for the moment to answer the door. It was still too early to rejoice, though. If he'd prayed to the right god Ryuunosuke would be there at the door to save him. And if it was the wrong one, then...

The door opened, and Gaku came to the conclusion that he'd made the right prayers to the wrong god.

"Tenn." Tenn acknowledged him at the same time that he did. "Gaku."

The words that followed from both of them might have been different, but they were, miraculously, said at the same time, and even more so, essentially meant the same thing.

"Tenn, I fucked up."

"Gaku, I screwed up."

Gaku's eyes narrowed, while Tenn's widened.

"Huh?!"

"Yo," grinned Izumi Mitsuki, stepping out from behind Tenn.

Gaku almost collapsed in shock.

 _This_ guy wasn't supposed to know anything! He was less than welcome!

Forget the wrong god, did his prayers end up reaching Satan instead?!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to characterise the Izumi parents based on what little there was from Iori's birthday photobook rabbit chats! I headcanon that Mrs Izumi is the sort of person that speaks unintentionally loudly, but in a laid-back, almost drawling manner. I can't come up with a better description, but it's kind of like a cross between Riku's personality and the way Tamaki speaks. I know it's odd, but it's partially influenced by this game I've been playing where there are some characters running a patisserie. (For the curious, it's Gyakuten Kenji 2/Ace Attorney Investigations 2)
> 
> Anyway, it's exams period for me, so I'll just apologise in advance in case the next chapter falls behind schedule, I'm only halfway through it :')
> 
> [PLEASE READ THIS, PLEASE.]  
> This is not related to the current fic I'm writing, but I need some help. I've actually ditched my current project to write this on a spur of inspiration, but I'm stuck on that one anyway because I need some RabbiTVs for reference that I don't have D: If anyone happens to have Iori/Tenn/Ryuu's SSRs for bnOURs! in Hanabuki Castle (bnOURs! in 花吹城) and wouldn't mind sharing the RabbiTVs with me PLEASE. LET ME KNOW. I'M DESPERATE. Leave me a comment below or drop me a message on tumblr (@stamfordraff) and I'll get back to you as quickly as I can. As thanks I'll translate it to the best of my ability (I can't seem to find them anywhere), and will most certainly credit you when I use it. PLEASE. I'M BEGGING YOU GUYS. Thank you for listening to my request!!! :')
> 
> ^the extent one goes to be as canon-compliant as possible...sigh. :(


	4. That's Not How You Do It!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the late update! My inspiration for the story kind of fizzled out after my exams and it took longer than expected for it to return, but it's finally back at long last. As an apology, please accept this longer-than-usual chapter. :)

Tenn eyed Gaku quizzically. "You said you 'fucked up'?"

Although it wasn't mentioned out loud, the both of them could almost hear the word 'too' tacked to the back of that question awkwardly.

Gaku shook his head in frustration, running a hand through his hair as he sighed. "You'll see when you come in." Iori being in here wasn't something he could talk about like this, not in front of his elder brother.

"Thank you for having me!" announced Mitsuki, as he stepped through the doors after Tenn. Gaku shot him a pointed glare from behind his back, before leading the way to the living room.

Iori looked up from his coffee as Gaku returned. "I'm sorry for my bad timing, Yaotome-san. I wasn't aware that you were already expecting some guests..." His eyes darted over to the two other figures that had just entered.

"Nii-san!" he gasped, wide-eyed.

"Iori? What are you doing here?"

"I-I d-didn't expect you'd be here too!" stammered Iori. "N-not at all, and not with Kujo-san, for that matter..."

Tenn cast a glance at Gaku, who shrugged. Given the fact that they'd both screwed up, they were on even terms. Only Ryuunosuke would have the right to get angry at them now.

Gaku forced a smile. This was twice as many people in on the plan as he'd desired. "So, are we going to start, or are we going to wait for Ryuu?"

"Let's just begin," Tenn answered. "We can fill him in on what he's missed later."

"If Tsunashi-san is coming as well, could it be that...?" Iori asked.

"Yeah. We were intending to talk about what you probably came here to talk about."

"Right," nodded the younger Izumi, after which an awkward silence fell over the group.

Gaku had let down his guard for a moment, having realised that Tenn wouldn't - and couldn't - get angry at him now that the latter had somehow managed to bring Mitsuki over along with him. However, he had in that moment of ease absolutely forgotten about the more imminent danger he had on hand, the reason why he'd phoned Ryuunosuke in the first place.

He was going to get a talking-to from IDOLiSH7's sharpest member.

"Go on," Gaku swallowed nervously. "Go ahead. Speak as much as you wish to. Just know that I'm going to stick to my plans no matter what. You can't stop me-"

"Yaotome-san," interrupted Iori seriously. "You seem to be under a severe misconception here."

"Huh?"

"Tell me. Who am I?"

Gaku furrowed his eyebrows. "What?"

"Who am I?" repeated Iori.

"Um...IDOLiSH7's Izumi Iori?" tried Gaku, scratching his head.

Iori nodded. "Yes, that's correct, of course. But that's not who I'm here as today. Do you understand what I mean?"

No, Gaku didn't understand what he meant.

"I'm not here as Izumi Iori of IDOLiSH7," Iori clarified. "I'm here as Izumi Iori of Fonte Chocolat, on behalf of my parents."

"In other words, you're on our side," coughed Tenn, and in that moment a wave of relief swept through Gaku that was so large, he couldn't quantify it.

He wasn't going to die.

Gaku was about to say a word of thanks, but Iori stopped him by raising an index finger. "That doesn't mean that the Izumi Iori of IDOLiSH7 has no words for you," he clarified, looking Gaku straight in the eye.

"One, and I believe you know this as well as I do: I'm sure you're very well aware of the implications, but even so I don't approve of you screwing our Manager."

Gaku gulped. Had anyone else said those words that way he might have taken them lightly, but when such a prim person as Iori spoke in such a crude manner he felt like he had just been doused by a bucket of cold water.

"Two," continued Iori as he shook his head, "I don't approve of it, but seeing how you're so insistent and it's you I'm not going to stop you from trying."

Tenn raised his eyebrows. "Gaku gets special treatment, huh."

"It is to my belief that you keep your private life under wraps exceptionally well," Iori observed. "I trust that you'll be able to keep this concealed as perfectly as you do your...secret identity. I'm confident that you know very well what I'm referring to..." he pointedly swirled the coffee around in his cup.

"What secret identity?" questioned Mitsuki and Gaku together, confused. The corners of Tenn's mouth turned upwards knowingly.

"As someone working under her, I don't have the rights to dictate the way my Manager leads her life in the first place," said Iori, dismissing their question. "Hierarchy dictates that one's superiors hold more power, after all. And that brings me to my third point.

"Three, I have to cooperate with my parents to aid you in your plans, and as a member of IDOLiSH7, I present you with this piece of information." He paused to give a resigned sigh, and Gaku was convinced that he wouldn't have complied if he had a choice not to.

"Well, based on IDOLiSH7's group and individual member schedules, our Manager will not be free on any day up to Valentine's Day. However, on the first Wednesday after that only MEZZO'' has activities, and Ogami-san is in charge of them." Iori closed his his eyes as if it pained him to say it. "I recommend that day if you were to put your plans into action."

"Wow," said Gaku, for the lack of a better response. "Thanks, Izumi-otouto."

"You're lucky, aren't you?" Tenn said to Gaku, a smile still playing around his lips.

The doorbell rang again just at that moment, and Gaku quickly excused himself once more.

He hoped that there wouldn't be any more extra unexpected guests appearing along with Ryuunosuke. It couldn't be helped that the Izumi brothers were in on it now, especially seeing how he'd sought their parents for help. However, the more people were in on his secret love issues, the worse his situation would be. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be anyone else lurking around by his side.

"Hey, Gaku," greeted Ryuunosuke seriously. "Are things going well?"

"More or less. Izumi-otouto's come on good terms."

"Is..." Ryuunosuke lowered his voice. "Is Tenn here?"

"Yeah," answered Gaku, as he let him in. "I'm sure I'm not getting a spanking from him, though. Quite the opposite, actually."

Ryuunosuke left his shoes at the entrance and bent down to turn them around so they were facing outwards. "How come?" he asked, as he followed after Gaku down the hallway.

The latter pauses in front of the door. "Well, you'll see..." he whispered under his breath, stepping aside so that Ryuunosuke was directly in front of it. "Why don't you do the honours?"

"Um...sure?" Ryuunosuke gave a quick glance over at Gaku, eyebrows raised, before turning the handle and swinging the door open. Two pairs of eyes greeted him in return.

"Hey, Tenn," he waved at the figure nearest to him, who was leaning casually against the bookshelf. "I see you've reached earlier than I did. Apologies for being the latest!" His attention turned to the solitary figure sitting off-center on the sofa facing the room's extrance. "Hello Iori-kun. I figured I'd see you here. Gaku told m-ARGHH!"

Someone else jumped on him from behind the door, and Ryuunosuke fell forwards, sprawling flat onto the ground. "Surprise!" He couldn't see who it was since the person in question was now on him as he lay face-down, but he recognised the voice. "Mitsuki-kun!" he gasped into the ground.

"Yo, that's me!" answered Mitsuki, as he got off Ryuunosuke's back and resumed his position on the sofa adjacent to the one Iori was sitting on, facing the television. Ryuunosuke got up followed him. "Bet you weren't expecting me, were you?"

Ryuunosuke turned, glanced at Tenn, who was suddenly very interested in staring at something on the floor. He shot yet another skeptical glance in the direction of the entrance where Gaku was standing.

"Surprise, indeed," muttered Gaku, joining Iori on his sofa.

"I'm sure it was," Mitsuki replied. "You didn't expect me, and neither did Kujo-san, after all!"

"Actually, I wasn't aware that'd you'd be coming, either," Iori pointed out.

Mitsuki scratched his head. "Oh, yeah, about that, I didn't know you were going to be here too, you know?"

"Um," began Ryuunosuke, confused. "But why are you here?"

Everyone stared at him.

Ryuunosuke grinned sheepishly. "Um, what's wrong?"

Although he couldn't possibly have known of the fact, the question he had just asked was an obvious one that neither Gaku, Tenn, nor Iori had thought of asking yet.

"Yeah, why're you here?" questioned Tenn, after an extended period of silence.

"Tenn, you brought him here!" Gaku cried, exasperated. "You brought him here without knowing why?"

"Yeah, why are you here?" echoed Iori.

"WHAT?!" Gaku shouted in disbelief. "HE WASN'T IN ON IT?"

"I thought he wasn't," murmured Iori. "If I didn't tell him about it, my parents didn't tell him about it, and you didn't tell him about it, then he wasn't, right?"

"THEN WHY ARE YOU HERE?" Gaku roared.

Mitsuki merely grinned back, unfazed. "I ran into Kujo-san on my way back, and he told me he was headed over to your place. I figured I'd just drop by to say hi since it's on the way home." He suddenly frowned. "But then Iori was here too, and I was curious. He's never been to your place before, so there must've been a reason why. But then you guys started talking about some Fonte Chocolat stuff, and it was about a date between you and our Manager, to boot! And then I realised I was the only one in the whole family who didn't know about it!" Mitsuki lunged at Iori angrily. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME, YOU IDIOT!"

Iori instinctively dodged behind Gaku, and the latter received a playful slap in the face. Joking as it was, it still hurt.

"So the outcome's that I get spanked anyway, but by Mitsuki instead, of all people, huh?" Gaku thought helplessly, his face smarting from the blow.

At least he now knew that he could trust the Izumis with his secrets...

* * *

If Gaku truly had a say on how he wanted things to go, he wasn't sure he would have liked it for the two younger Izumis to be in onto the whole plan. But now that things had taken their turn, he didn't particularly mind. It seemed like a good idea in the end - Iori had come in goodwill after all, and he had far better insight into Tsumugi's schedule than anyone else in TRIGGER did. And if everyone else in the Izumi family was already in on it, it didn't feel right to leave Mitsuki out of the loop. Especially not after Mitsuki himself was the one who had personally trained Gaku during his Fonte Chocolat days.

Thus, he'd quickly brought Mitsuki up to speed on what exactly was going on, complete with all the minor details that he wouldn't have detected from simply hearing their conversation earlier. In the meantime, Tenn and Iori helped to fill Ryuunosuke in on the discussion he had missed before he had arrived.

"Basically," summarised Ryuunosuke, "The day we're going to carry this out is the Wednesday after Valentine's, and the only thing we have now left to decide is what exactly it is that the both of them will learn to make together, is that right?"

Iori nodded. "We'll have to make sure that our Manager doesn't already have personal plans in mind on that day, but everything else is correct."

"Sweets ideas huh. We don't really know much about that," admitted Tenn. "We'll have to rely on you two's expert opinions for this one."

"Nii-san would know best. He's the one who taught Yaotome-san, so he should be aware of Yaotome-san's skill level."

"Gaku's better than you'd expect," said Mitsuki, overhearing their conversation. "He looks like he's all looks and no substance-" "Excuse me?" "-but he's surprisingly adept in the kitchen!"

"Wow," exclaimed Tenn, Ryuunosuke and Iori, as of on cue. "I never knew!"

Gaku rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, he is," continued Mitsuki, oblivious to how suspicious their response was. "Anyway, he's learnt how to bake a chocolate cake. That can work, right?"

"It may be a better idea to go with something that Gaku isn't familiar with," suggested Tenn. "Takanashi-san would probably enjoy it more if they were figuring out how to do things together, instead of having him help her out. It would give her the feeling that they were in it together if they struggled and overcame their obstacles together. Besides, what's the fun in a perfect man?" He cast a sideglance at Iori.

"Furthermore," added Iori, refusing to take the bait, "I don't think any of us know of our Manager's skills when it comes to making sweets. We know that she's not terrible at it, because the lunches that she occasionally makes for us are better than average. But we can't say for sure yet how good she is. Choosing a simpler recipe that would still be fun to make would be the best course of action."

"Something simple, but still worthy of Fonte Chocolat's name, huh..." mused Gaku. "I don't even think I know enough about chocolates to know what different kinds there are..."

"Remember," Ryuunosuke reminded. "We can help contribute ideas, but there isn't a point no matter how perfect the plan is, if you weren't the one who thought of it all."

"I know. I'll just have to do some research for a bit," Gaku noted, as he began looking up ideas online with his phone.

Everyone fell into silence as they waited.

"...It really sucks, doesn't it," Mitsuki sympathised. "That us guys have gotta initiate the chocolate-giving to her, instead of the usual other way round."

The rest nodded in agreement. The first Valentine's Day after IDOLiSH7 and TRIGGER had gotten to know her, everyone had received obligatory chocolates from Tsumugi. It was a happy little occasion for them all.

What wasn't as happy an event was White Day, when Tsumugi received chocolates from each of them in return. Of course, Tsumugi was happy, but nobody else was...and most especially not her father. President Takanashi, like the overprotective father he was, had hunted down every single one of the ten of them individually to give them a piece of his mind. The man was even more terrifying than Gaku's father in his rare moments of anger, and Tsumugi ended up doing a lot of apologising to them on behalf of him.

From then on, they had all come to a mutual agreement to give her chocolates on Valentine's, and for her to reciprocate on White Day. That way, if President Takanashi noticed a lot of chocolates lying around on the fourteenth of February, he would pass them off as gifts she would be giving to other people.

This eventually became the yearly tradition, and Re:vale was warned in advance about the matter once they had gotten to know Tsumugi. Although they couldn't do anything about it, Momo and Yuki were extremely salty about the matter: Only Banri could get away with doing things the normal way around, because President Takanashi adored him. It was unfair.

"Alright," said Gaku decisively, fifteen minutes later. "I think I've got this. How's nama chocolate?"

"WHOA!" exclaimed Mitsuki. "That's a good one!"

"Simple yet classic, fitting of Fonte Chocolate," Iori evaluated. "I approve of the idea."

Tenn shrugged and gave a small smile. "Well, if it's been approved by the experts in the field then I guess it's a good plan."

"I'm so proud of you, Gaku!" Ryuunosuke cheered happily. "Even though we've guided you, you managed to come up with everything on your own! Dang, I wish I could sample the chocolates you'll make..."

"Hey, hey," interrupted Tenn. "This is all very well and I'm glad that the entire plan's been finalised too, but the plan will only remain as a plan if it isn't put into action, you know?"

Mitsuki, however, was far less discreet. "♪ Go get the girl, we'll be right here! ♪" he singsonged.

"Hang on," said Iori, noticing that Gaku had opened up the rabbit chat app on his phone to his right. "You're not going to text her to ask her out, are you?"

"B-but...c-call?" Gaku stammered. "H-how am I supposed to do that?"

Ryuunosuke reached over to slap him on the back. "I'm sure you'll do fine if you be yourself!"

"Alright then," conceded Gaku as he got up to go make the call in his room.

"Hey, hey," said Tenn again, intercepting Gaku's escape path. "Where do you think you're going?"

"♪ Please do stay here," sang Mitsuki. "We wanna hear! ♪"

"I don't even know what to say to her!" protested Gaku.

"Saying something is better than saying nothing, you know!" Ryuunosuke encouraged. "And just do it here, we'll all be here for you. I promise none of us will judge you, not one bit."

"Yeah," chorused three voices in various degrees of reluctancy.

Gaku gave up. "Fine, I'll stay," he sighed, joining Iori back on the sofa. Tenn returned to leaning against the bookshelf. He entered in the number that he'd already memorised by heart into his phone.

Everything was done. There was only one thing left to do.

"Good luck, Yaotome-san," said Iori from beside him, and Gaku pressed dial, making sure beforehand that the phone wasn't on loudspeaker. He didn't have a choice to prevent everyone from listening to his end of the conversation, but he'd appreciate it for Tsumugi's privacy to be maintained.

"Hello, Gaku-san?" answered Tsumugi after just one ring.

Gaku took the fact that he was being addressed by his given name as an indication that she was thankfully somewhere safely private, probably at home. He decided to reciprocate that. "Yo, Tsumugi. What's up?"

"Nothing much, just reading a book at home. You're at home too?" she guessed, noticing the way he addressed her.

"Ah. Yeah."

"What's the matter?" Tsumugi asked. "It's not often that I receive a call from you-"

"Tsumugi," Gaku said hurriedly. "I'm just going to try to get to the point, alright?" He could feel four pairs of eyes staring at him even harder than they were already, and he suddenly felt nervous. There was no choice but to go for it at this point, though.

"Say, this is entirely hypothetical, but if I gave you chocolates for Valentine's, would you reciprocate on White Day?"

"Um, yes? That's what we've been doing every year, right?"

Gaku hesitated. "What if mine were handmade? Would you make yours for me by hand, too?"

"Yes, definitely." Much to his surprise, Tsumugi had answered without missing a beat.

"Good."

Neither of them spoke for the next ten seconds, but then Gaku's next words suddenly came out in a rush.

"Well then, to save us the trouble, do you want to make them together? In between Valentine's and White Day or something?"

To his left, Iori pushed his hands under his bangs, and buried his face into both his palms with such extreme force that it wouldn't go any deeper.

Mitsuki grabbed the nearest pillow and started screaming soundlessly into it.

For some inexplicable reason, Ryuunosuke tried to crawl under the coffee table in secondhand embarassment, despite his large frame.

Tenn walked out of the room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably one of the stupidest things I've ever written lmfao
> 
> Did you cringe at the ending? Because if you did, I consider my mission accomplished...Incidentally, I'd react like Ryuu in a situation like this.
> 
> One more chapter to go! Let's hope I can publish it in time.


	5. Welcome to Fonte Chocolat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed that this chapter is no longer going to be the final one. (Yay?)
> 
> Now that I've missed uploading this on White Day, it's too late to fulfill the 'once a week from Valentine's to White Day' concept. Thus, I've come to the decision to split this chapter into two for better flow. I've no idea if it's better to meet the deadline with one ridiculously long chapter or to do away with the concept and do what seems more coherent, but I intend to take the latter route and I hope that's alright with you guys as readers :') Hopefully the benefits of having more chapters outweighs the aesthetics of the concept. 
> 
> I could've rushed this out by yesterday and made it in time for the White Day deadline, but instead I decided to take my time so that I'd be more satisfied with the results. (That was a lie. Actually I was and still am running a fever and shivering in the sunlight, and I fell asleep in the midst of writing and woke up past midnight LOL) But I was too excited to share it once I was done, so for the first time this hasn't been beta-read yet. Please forgive me for any errors although that usually doesn't happen! I'll update it if there's anything wrong.
> 
> Alright, that's enough from me; I'm beginning to ramble.
> 
> And now, a long GakuTsumu segment, just as promised. Please enjoy!

Gaku's phone vibrated vigorously in his right pants pocket. Taking it out, he scanned through the notifications appearing on his lockscreen that had been sent to him all at once.

 

_You have four new Rabbit Chat messages._

**Izumi-otouto**

Yaotome-san, all the best for later.

Please remember not to do anything inappropriate to her.

**Ryuu**

We'll be rooting for you!

**Tenn**

Good luck, Gaku.

**Izumi-ani**

CHOCO☆SHIYOUZE

 

"Who is it?" enquired Mr Izumi curiously.

"Just every single one of them," Gaku answered.

It was the first Wednesday after Valentine's, and they were both in the patisserie Fonte Chocolat waiting for Tsumugi to arrive. Gaku was already in a state of extreme nervousness, and at this point he had no idea whether everyone's messages did well to ease or heighten that anxiety.

Mr Izumi chuckled. "Even though they're all right upstairs? You guys sure are an interesting bunch."

Gaku and Tsumugi had agreed to meet directly at the patisserie at noon, as being seen together out in public with no one else would no doubt raise suspicions from the media, and worse still, her father. Gaku had decided to reach an hour prior to the stipulated time so he could catch up with the Izumi parents, talk about the plan, and most importantly thank them deeply for their help.

What wasn't his intention was for Tenn and Ryuunosuke to come along with him, but they had anyway. Apparently Mitsuki had invited them over "just to hang", but given that the date and time they were supposed to meet was exactly at 11 in the morning on 20 February, Gaku knew that the real reason they were meeting was to give him some emotional support.

They weren't even discreet about the whole thing. Tenn and Ryuunosuke literally showed up on his doorstep at an ungodly hour in the morning, woke him up, got him out of bed, helped him choose his clothes and iron them as if he wasn't capable of doing that himself, and made him breakfast. Gaku supposed he should be thankful that they didn't go to such lengths as to personally spoonfeed him.

When all of that was done, they flung open the doors to reveal a car already waiting outside, and forced him along with them into the backseat. Mitsuki had waved to them from the driver's seat, Iori had said a quick hello from the shotgun, and with that they were off. If Gaku himself wasn't already aware of their destination he would very well accuse them all of kidnapping him.

Mr and Mrs Izumi were waiting for them outside the store when they arrived. The first thing Mrs Izumi did was to give Gaku a big hug, followed by Mitsuki, and then Iori, who had tried to dodge but failed. Tenn, who had only met Mr Izumi the one previous time he was here, then introduced himself to Mrs Izumi, and she tugged on the hand that he had extended for a cordial handshake towards her. Not wanting to go down alone, Tenn grabbed an unwitting Ryuunosuke by the collar, and they got pulled into a group hug. Ryuunosuke caught the eye of Mr Izumi, who was standing some distance behind his wife, and nodded shyly. He nodded back with a smile.

After all the greetings, hugs, and introductions were done, in that specific order, Mrs Izumi had brought Gaku's four friends up a floor above the patisserie where the Izumis' home was, and they had set up camp in Mitsuki's room. In the meantime, Gaku remained downstairs with Mr Izumi, where they were chatting and waiting for noon to come.

"You've really got some good friends there, haven't you?" commented Mr Izumi. "I sure wish I had four wingmen back in the day like you do now."

"W-wingmen!?" spluttered Gaku.

Mr Izumi chuckled. "Or at least some other friends who'd help me out when I had needed help."

"I-I see."

"You know how she is," he admitted with a small smile. "A little outspoken, very ditzy...it was more than just a little difficult to try and get to know her more after we had met, especially given how hard it is for me in general to get to know people better."

Mr Izumi was strangely conversational today. Remembering how they had shared over the phone call the other day that the two had first met at a sweets-making workshop, Gaku wondered if this was his subconscious way of expressing his excitement to help him out today.

"But you didn't give up."

"No, I didn't give up. And I'm truly glad that I didn't. Through the years, our feelings for each other have never weakened. Different as we are, we were made for each other."

Gaku envied them so much. What the Izumis had was what he probably wished his ideal future love life was.

 

_You have one new rabbit chat message._

**Takanashi Tsumugi**

I just reached the station!

Will be reaching in 15 minutes.

 

"...she'll be reaching soon..." Gaku said nervously.

"I know it's difficult, but please try not to be so tense," advised Mr Izumi. 

 

**You**

Alright

No need to rush though (lol)

**Takanashi Tsumugi**

Okay, I promise I won't.

See you soon!

 

Gaku groaned. "I'm seeing her soon..."

Mr Izumi let out a short laugh. "Relax, Yaotome-kun! You're going to see her soon, don't make it sound like it's a bad thing!" 

"What if I screw up?" he retorted.

"You won't if you relax," Mr Izumi said firmly.

Gaku was in panic. "I can't," he said, trembling, his face in his hands.

"Listen. Gaku." Mr Izumi called him by his first name and patted his head with a gentle hand, as if he were his very own child. "You must, or everything will pass in a flash and you'll retain barely any memory of it."

"I'll try..."

"Don't worry, you've got this." 

 

**You**

See you real soon.

* * *

Although Gaku had already been a ball of nerves all along, it truly hit him that he was actually going on a semi-date with his crush only when she walked through the doors of Fonte Chocolat. That everything was a reality rather than a dream, no matter how it felt like one.

A confused expression had briefly flickered across her face as she entered, but it had cleared once she noticed him and Mr Izumi waiting for her at the other end of the store, close to the cashier. Even before she began making her way towards them, she dipped into a short, polite bow.

"Good afternoon, Izumi-san," Tsumugi greeted. "Thank you for having me today, and I'm deeply sorry for the intrusion."

Mr Izumi responded with a quick bow of his own, and she recovered only after he did. "Good afternoon, Takanashi-san," he answered. "Don't worry about it. I'm sure Yaotome-san has already explained the situation to you in full after all."

"Actually..." Tsumugi hesitated. "He only mentioned that you told him you were in need of two additional pairs of hands for 'some help in the store', that he would be in a 'dire situation' if he wasn't able to find someone else, and that I was the only other person he knew that was free today."

Gaku could see Mr Izumi try to restrain an incoming smile so badly that it ended up looking like a frown instead. "What?" he asked, defensive. "That's basically it, right? It's not like there's anything else I can tell her." _Or anything else that I should._

"Yes, but let the poor girl know more about the context, at the very least," said Mr Izumi in that frowning smile of his. Turning to Tsumugi, he began smoothly explaining the false situation that his wife, sons and TRIGGER had helped to concoct. 

"You see, Takanashi-san, I've been coming up with a few new recipe ideas for limited sweets that we could potentially sell in the next season. It wouldn't do to continue with our Rose Collection now that Valentine's Day is over after all, since it would be considered off-season. The thing is, we've been lagging way too much behind schedule for our customer preorders, and I simply don't have the time to test out these recipes personally. My sons would typically help to test them out if they happened to be off on Wednesdays, but this time Iori's got an important exam coming up and Mitsuki's busy with something...else."

These were both lies. Iori had no exams going on in this period, not even a minor one, but he had been pretending that he did even around IDOLiSH7 in order to convince Tsumugi. (Tamaki's presence wasn't a problem at all, as he didn't care about the exam schedule, much less bother to study for any of them in the first place.)

Mitsuki was busy with, well, playing host in his room to two TRIGGER members and his younger brother who was supposedly studying for a nonexistent test at present.

"We were desperate for more help, and my wife suggested I turned to Yaotome-kun, since he's worked with us before. He readily agreed, but I wasn't sure if he could handle it without another person around, thus I insisted that he find someone else to come along. If they weren't experienced, at least they would be there for some moral support."

Gaku blushed, but Tsumugi was confident. "I hope that I can be more helpful than that, Gaku-san. Let's do this together," she said determinedly.

"Don't worry, it wouldn't be too difficult," assured Mr Izumi. "Today you'll be trying out the recipe for nama chocolate. Of course, as thanks you'll get to have some for yourself, and the recipe, too."

"Is that really okay?" asked Gaku, belatedly realising that Tsumugi had asked the exact same thing at the exact same time. His heart skipped a beat. "Recipes are a patissier's livelihood," he added.

Mr Izumi shrugged. "I trust in Takanashi-san's integrity."

"Wait, what about me!?"

"You earn loads more than me with that idol job of yours. Selling this wouldn't be any useful form of extra income for you," he deadpanned.

Gaku could feel his face turn red and ears begin to heat up. Tsumugi brought a hand to her mouth to mask her laughter.

"Now, if you both would be so kind as to follow me to the kitchen, and we can begin..."

* * *

Gaku wasn't sure if he was supposed to feel happy or betrayed right now.

The plan, the real plan that Tsumugi was unaware of, had been for Mr Izumi to guide them through each step of the recipe, but he had suddenly determined on second thought that it would be sufficiently easy for amateurs to follow on their own. He had then excused himself to another room on the basis that he had to rush out the decorations of a set of cupcakes a customer had preordered.

"Feel free to come seek me out for help if you need help troubleshooting any problems, though," he had told the pair, and he took advantage on his way out while Tsumugi was distracted with tying her apron strings to give Gaku a thumbs up and wink that was extremely uncharacteristic of him. Gaku responded equally uncharacteristically by sticking out his tongue at him.

"Here," Gaku offered, after Mr Izumi had left them alone. "Stay still, and I'll help you tie them. You could skim through the recipe in the meantime, and take note of what we'll be doing. If you don't mind," he added hastily, fearing that he had come across as being overly commanding.

"Sure," she replied, picking up the piece of paper that was on the counter in front of her and studying it intently.

Despite Mr Izumi's numerous white lies during his prior explanation to Tsumugi, the fact that this was a new recipe he had just created was the truth, and it showed from the way it was neatly written down by hand onto the sheet of notepaper. Although the recipe was created for this occasion, Mr Izumi was already confident that it would be a success, and genuinely did intend to use it in his store for the next season for real. Though of course Tsumugi wouldn't know that.

"It seems like a fairly manageable recipe to me," she observed. "Oh, thank you, Gaku-san. Do you need help with your ribbon as well? I can help you do it if you turn around."

Without waiting for an answer, she handed him the recipe and went behind him. Fearing that he wouldn't be able to say a word of thanks without getting tongue-tied, Gaku scrutinised the recipe extremely carefully in search of something else to say.

"Hey, Tsumugi, are you more of a milk or dark chocolate person? Izumi-toosan wrote here that we could use either one or a mix of both, depending on our taste preferences."

She returned the question to him. "Which do you prefer?"

"Ahh..." Gaku faltered. He wasn't sure if he wanted to tell her the truth, but if this was a chance for them to get to know each other better he should. "Actually, it's neither...I'm a white chocolate person."

Thankfully, she didn't think anything badly of it. "Wow, I didn't expect you to have such a sweet tooth," she noted. "I'm more dark chocolate. Should we go with half milk and half dark, then?"

"If you prefer dark, we can go with that."

"No, but you're making this recipe, too!" Tsumugi argued. "You've got to _like_ the outcome!"

"Fair enough. Three quarters dark."

"Okay, let's assume three quarters dark chocolate and a quarter _white_. White's sweeter, so to compensate we should do dark-milk fifty-fifty," she insisted.

Gaku rolled his eyes before turning around to face her. "Fine," he conceded. Was this what his father meant when he said there wasn't any point in arguing with women?

Yet, the situation was more like a lighthearted banter than an actual argument, and when their eyes met they started to engage in a casually impromptu staring match.

Gaku had broke the eye contact first; Tsumugi narrowed her eyebrows at him, but the overall effect just added to her cuteness rather than intimidated him, and he had smiled and blinked at the distraction. They both burst into laughter, and whatever mild tension that was between them diffused. Gaku was surprised and thankful to feel his nervousness gradually ebbing away after that episode. For the first time ever since the first day the plan had been born over at Ryuunosuke's place, he was convinced that he might actually be able to pull this off successfully.

"We can do this," he said out loud, more to himself than to Tsumugi. Nonetheless, she responded.

"Let's begin!"

* * *

**_The ingredients you'll need for this recipe are chocolate (milk/dark), heavy cream, unsalted butter, salt, and cocoa powder._ **

**_I've already prepared them in the required amounts for you and placed them on the counter with the required kitchenware, with the exception of the milk and dark chocolates, as the ratio to be used will vary according to your preferences._ **

**_Any ratio of milk and dark chocolate will do, as long as they total up to 300g._ **

"So," said Gaku, stuffing both hands into his apron pockets.

" _So_ ," echoed Tsumugi, mirroring the exact same gesture.

Gaku looked at her. "Fifty-fifty?"

"No," answered Tsumugi, meeting his eye with a serious expression. " _Hundred fifty-hundred fifty._ "

They both ugly-laughed.

Gaku had a feeling this would be the overall mood of the day, laughter and fun times. It was by no means a bad thing, at least in his opinion. After all, there wasn't a need to keep up an overly mushy, romantic atmosphere here. In Izumi Iori's manner of speaking, he wasn't here as the No. 1 Most Desired Embrace, but instead just Yaotome Gaku, nothing more. And 'Yaotome Gaku, nothing more' was a laid back person who simply wanted to enjoy himself in everything he did. Especially right now.

He reached for a bowl they could store the chocolates in, and looked at Tsumugi. "Do you think you've got a steady hand?"

"I think so. Shall I pour the chocolates in? You could tell me when to stop."

"Alright." Gaku bent down to see the numbers on the scale better. "Go ahead."

The numbers flew upwards as the sound of chocolate hitting the bowl crescendoed, and it gradually softened and slowed down.

"Is it enough?"

"No, not yet."

"More?"

"Yes, more...okay slow down...stop."

Tsumugi stopped.

"Argh wait, it's too much. Take away five pieces."

Tsumugi took away five pieces.

"Okay, add like, three."

Tsumugi added like, three.

"Put one back."

Tsumugi put one back.

"Nice," proclaimed Gaku triumphantly. "We've got exactly 300.0g of dark chocolate here."

"Gaku-san," whispered Tsumugi. "It's supposed to be 150g."

Gaku screamed.

**_Step 1: Finely chop the chocolate into small pieces._ **

"I can do that," volunteered Gaku, once their chocolate had been measured in the right proportions. "Why don't you move on to the next step?"

"Okay," agreed Tsumugi.

**_Step 2: Heat the heavy cream. Take it off the stove once it starts to simmer and let it cool for a few minutes, until warm to the touch._ **

"Gaku-san," Tsumugi said in a small voice. "I'm not very good with fires. Our house and office both use induction stoves..."

Gaku finished chopping up a piece of chocolate and looked up. "Hmm? We can swap if you like."

"Yes, please, that'd be great," she replied gratefully, and they exchanged places.

Gaku turned on the fire, searched for a spoon, and began to gently stir the cream around in the saucepan as it slowly got hotter. He made sure to stare at it intently so he could quickly remove it once the first bubbles had formed.

"You're really skilled at knifework," marvelled Tsumugi from beside him. "How do you manage to cut them up so finely? Mine are about twice the size of yours!"

"Practice, I guess? I cook a lot for myself and TRIGGER, so..." Gaku couldn't possibly tell her that he had another job. Not even if it was her. "It shouldn't matter as long as they're not too big, though, so don't worry."

The heavy cream began to simmer.

"I sure hope they aren't..."

"Nah, you'll be fine." He took the saucepan off the stove and turned down the heat, then walked over to see how she was doing. The chocolates were chopped up way better than she had given herself credit for. "You _are_ fine."

"Am I?"

"Yeah." _Both you and the chocolates._ "The cream's cooling already, though, so if you don't mind I'll help you out some."

"Sure, thank you so much! Go ahead." She took another knife nearby and jokingly brandished it at him. Gaku jumped backwards.

"Hey, don't do that!" He yelped. "But nice Osaka impression."

She raised her eyebrows, and they continued chopping the chocolates in silent concentration, save for the sound of knives hitting the chopping board, one brisker than the other.

**_Step 3: To a bowl, add the chopped chocolate, a pinch of salt, butter, and the warm heavy cream, then let stand for a minute._ **

"Alright," began Gaku. "Let's split the job evenly. I'll add in the ingredients, and you can let stand."

" _No!"_ protested Tsumugi, giggling.

They emptied the chocolates they had chopped up into the bowl together, then Tsumugi added in the butter.

"Hey, Tsumugi, look." Gaku added the salt in like the meme guy did, and she laughed again.

He slowly poured in the warm cream, taking extra care not to have it splash outside the bowl.

"And now, we wait." He sat down and crossed his legs happily.

"Gaku-san," said Tsumugi in a low voice. "Do you not feel guilty about this?"

Gaku uncrossed his legs and leant forward. "About what?"

She pointed to the mixture. "It's standing, and you're sitting. You ought to feel sorry for yourself."

Gaku was unfazed.

"No, I ought to feel sorry for _it_."

**_Step 4: Stir the mixture until everything is smooth and well-combined._ **

**** "Shall we take turns?"

 "Yeah, let's do that. You're likely to tire out more easily than I do, so you can start first."

"Okay," said Tsumugi, reaching for the spatula. "Whoa, the chocolate's melted!" she gasped, wide-eyed.

Gaku smiled, amused by her exaggerated reaction. "Of course it is, the cream melted it."

So far, so good. They were almost halfway there.

**_Step 5: Pour the mixture into a baking tin lined with baking paper. Smoothen the top using a spatula._ **

"Alright," began Gaku. "Let's split the job evenly. I'll pour the mixture in since the bowl's heavy, and you can smoothen it since you're already holding the spatula."

Tsumugi stared at him blankly, blinking thrice.

"...what?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just surprised because I expected you to crack another joke, but you didn't."

 _She was looking forward to my joke?_ Gaku thought excitedly. Instead, however, he told her, "Hey, I can be serious too, you know."

She sighed. "Yeah, I know. Just it's been really fun, you know? And your funny jokes made it even more so."

 _She's enjoying today?_ Gaku thought again, even more excitedly.

"Your jokes are also surprisingly funny, Tsumugi. I'm having fun too."

She winked. "No one's here to judge us anyway!"

Gaku had to quickly put a hand up to his nose to check if his nose had started bleeding out of excitement. Thankfully, it didn't.

**_Step 6: Refrigerate the tin for a minimum of 4 hours._ **

_Four hours!?_

Things had been going as smoothly as the chocolate mixture they had made, but that was only because they were being engaged in an activity together and hence had something to talk about. To just sit down with the girl he loved for four whole hours without doing anything in particular...Gaku was sure that things would get awkward after a period of time. He had to think of something they could do while they waited. 

**_(Step 6.1: While waiting, sing.)_ **

"I wonder if there's something we could do in the meantime..." he mused.

 _"♪In the meantime♪,"_ sang Tsumugi.

 _"♪In the meantime♪,"_ repeated Gaku.

_"♪Mitsumeru beki wa dareka janai♪"_

Gaku snickered. "That's a pretty good Tenn impression. He'll be proud if he heard that."

"Really?" Tsumugi covered her eyes with both hands, blushing. "I'd never dream of doing it in front of him, it'd be too embarrassing!"

"What about that time during IDOLiSH7's first anniversary when you, Ogami-san and your father were intending to imitate Tenn, Ryuu, and me?" he pointed out.

"Let's not think about that," answered Tsumugi, changing the subject. "What's your favourite TRIGGER song?"

"Hmm. I can't answer that, you know? If I labeled any one song as my favourite, I'd subconsciously put in less effort for the other songs when I perform, and that's something an idol should never do." Tsumugi seemed disappointed by his answer, but he had to tell the truth on that matter.

"You're not bearing that burden, though, so back at you. Which of our songs is your favourite?" he asked, genuinely curious.

"I have an obvious favourite," thought Tsumugi out loud, "but I'm not sure of it counts..."

"Why not?"

"Do solo songs count? Because I really, _really_ love Shiawase de Ite." She smiled at him sweetly, hands behind her back.

In that moment, Gaku forgot how to breathe. But he quickly remembered how to once his vision started to fade in front of him.

"I can give you a private performance now, if you like," said Gaku. _A serenade._

"Are you serious!?"

Gaku tried to look and sound as nonchalant as possible. "Yeah. We've got three and a half hours to go anyway, right?"

_What's better than getting to serenade the girl you love?_

"Let's make it a duet. Sing with me, Tsumugi." He _hoped_ he looked and sounded as nonchalant as possible.

Tsumugi's eyes widened. "Yes...yes please!"

They did.

**_(Step 6.2: While waiting, take a picture.)_ **

It was a good thing that no one walked in on them singing in the kitchen. Gaku wouldn't know what to do with himself for the rest of his life.

Tsumugi really had a great voice when she sang, and although she had no idea that the song was actually written as a dedication to her, he felt like he had accomplished his greatest goal in life by not only singing it to her, but singing it _with_ her. It was one of the best moments of his life to date. Actually, this whole day was. He absolutely had to commit this to memory.

"Say, Tsumugi," he started. "Shall we take a photo together?"

It was a courtesy question, but to his surprise she shook her head. "I'd love to, but it can't do. You're a famous idol, and I'm a manager of a well-known idol group. I really can't imagine what would happen if we lost our phones, or they were hacked, and someone else got access to those photos."

"...you're right," agreed Gaku sadly.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, after which the kitchen door swung open suddenly, and Mrs Izumi waltzed in.

"Hello!" she waved at them both, and Tsumugi stood up to give a short polite bow not unlike the one she gave Mr Izumi when they first met. "How's everything going?"

"Pretty good," answered Gaku. "We're just waiting for it to solidify in the fridge."

"Oh my, in this stuffy kitchen? You both are welcome to take a breather outside, you know!"

"It's fine," Tsumugi smiled.

"Oh well," Mrs Izumi shook her head. "Feel free to do so whenever you need to! And don't forget to let us know if you need help with anything." She shot a discreet but meaningful stare at Gaku.

"Um, actually," Gaku said hastily, getting the message. "Could you help us to take a photo? Please?"

"No problem at all!"

"Gaku-san!" whispered Tsumugi harshly.

"What? No one's interested in hacking _her_ phone."

"Get ready! Three, two, one, say cheese!"

The phone camera flashed.

**_(Step 6.3: While waiting, make something else.)_ **

Tsumugi sighed.

Gaku glanced at her. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing...just a little thirsty."

"Hmm," Gaku looked around. "I suppose Izumi-toosan wouldn't mind if we used just a little bit of some of his other ingredients..." He began rummaging in the storage cupboard, and retrieved a bag of marshmallows.

Tsumugi watched as he opened the refrigerator, took out a carton of milk, and shut it. "What're you doing, Gaku-san?"

Gaku poured some milk into the saucepan, added some chocolate, and turned up the heat on the stove. 

Raising up two mint-coloured mugs, he winked. "Why don't we make some hot chocolate?"

**_(Step 6.4[?]: While waiting, go spy on others.)_ **

"Mitsuki-san," began Ryuunosuke hesitantly. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Nothing's gonna happen, man," assured Mitsuki. "You can't resist seeing what they're up to in person either, right?"

Iori frowned disapprovingly. "As I said, this is an invasion of privacy."

"As long as they don't notice us, it's fine," said Tenn.

The doors to the kitchen opened a little, and four heads stuck in through the tiny crack.

Gaku and Tsumugi were sitting to one side of the kitchen, engaged in deep conversation.

The pair were so engrossed, they never realised that four people had been spying on them, not even after they shut the door a little too loudly than they should have, a full twenty minutes later.

**_(Step 6.5: While waiting, realise that there isn't a need to wait anymore.)_ **

In the midst of their conversation, the mugs of hot chocolate had been left untouched after a while, and had become lukewarm. Gaku and Tsumugi had talked about so many things, from serious topics such as what life was like for them back when they were children, to ridiculously lighthearted ones like whether melon soda would be considered as melon juice if it had the fizz taken away from it.

Which was why when Tsumugi's eyes fell on the clock on the wall, she suddenly let out a huge gasp.

Gaku jumped. "What!?"

She shot out of her seat. "Gaku-san, it's already 6pm - five hours have passed!"

**_Step 7: Tip out the nama chocolate onto another piece of baking paper._ **

"We've gotta be careful here," said Gaku seriously. "Or else the chocolate would break on its way out of the tin."

Tsumugi covered the top of the tin with a sheet of baking paper. "I'll make sure it doesn't fall out as you invert the tin. Let's do this slowly."

They held their breaths as Gaku flipped the tin over, and set it down on the counter. Slowly, he lifted up the tin and Tsumugi peeled off the sheet of paper stuck to what was once the bottom of the chocolate but was now the top.

They relaxed. The chocolate had came out in one intact slab. It was a success.

**_Step 8: Dust the surface of the chocolate with a generous amount of cocoa powder._ **

"Ooh, that sounds fun. Can I do this one?"

Gaku laughed. "Why not?"

Tsumugi placed some cocoa powder into the small hand sieve, and gently sifted the fine cocoa powder over the chocolate, making sure to cover the surface entirely.

"♪Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow♪," he sang, while she was at it.

She grinned. "It's snowing chocolate-"

"Ah, ah, achoo!" sneezed Gaku.

Tsumugi paused the chocolate snow for a moment, and turned to mock-glare at him. "If you weren't covering your mouth and sneezing in the opposite direction, I'd totally be killing you now."

"Ah. Sorry."

**_Step 9: Using a sharp knife, cut the chocolate into evenly sized squares, then transfer them into the box._ **

"What if," wondered Gaku, "we transfer them into the box before cutting them? Wouldn't that make things neater?"

Tsumugi pondered the idea. "Would the knife end up cutting the base of the box?"

They considered the possibility in momentary silence.

"No, let's play it the safe way," said Gaku on second thought.

"You'll cut them and I'll transfer them?" Tsumugi suggested. "Since we've established that your knife skills are better and my hands are steadier than yours," she explained.

"Good idea."

Gaku's knife ran smoothly across the chocolate, leaving crisscrossed lines almost evenly spaced out between one another. With extra care, Tsumugi lifted the chocolates piece by piece, and arranged them into four boxes, two for the Izumis and one for each of them.

"Oh wow," she breathed. "We're actually done."

Gaku smiled, and they did a high-five. "It's unbelievable, but we did it."

**_You're done!_ **

Mr Izumi was working on the cupcakes like he said when the two of them entered the decorating room. They appeared to be orchestral-themed, the cupcakes were covered in white frosting and he was making little marzipan instruments as cupcake toppers. "You're done?" he asked while sculpting a small but detailed little french horn.

"Yeah," said Gaku. "Please try it, we worked really hard to make this."

He nodded, setting the horn aside to join its cello, trumpet, flute, and timpani counterparts. "I can tell. Let's go back to the storefront, and we can ask my wife to try it out, too. She gives much more accurate opinions than I can."

* * *

Mrs Izumi stared sparkly-eyed at the chocolate that Gaku and Tsumugi had made.

"Wow, it looks really good!" she exclaimed. "Shall we all taste it together?"

"It's alright," said Tsumugi shyly. "We've got our own boxes for ourselves after all." Gaku nodded in agreement. Mrs Izumi frowned.

"Where's the spirit? You've worked so hard to do this, it's better to have it fresh, right? That's why it's called 'nama' chocolate."

"I don't think that's what the 'nama' in nama chocolate refers to, my dear," pointed out Mr Izumi. "But she's right. We've got another box. Taking two pieces out from this one wouldn't hurt," he insisted.

Before either Gaku or Tsumugi could make any attempts to reject them any further, Mrs Izumi had already pressed little wooden picks into their hands to pick the chocolate up with.

"There you go! Now let's eat!"

Silence filled the air as the four of them sampled the handmade chocolates.

Gaku fidgeted nervously. They were delicious in his eyes, and Tsumugi's told him that they were in hers, too. However, their standards were probably far lower than those of a patissier and his sweets-taster. "How is it?"

Mrs Izumi nodded, smiling, and gave them a thumbs up after swallowing. "The melt-in-the-mouth texture you've accomplished pretty well, and the chocolate is well-mixed and very smooth, too. I do feel it could be improved a little if the dusting of cocoa powder was a little less, though, and the taste was just a tiny bit off - it may be due to the overheating of the cream. But overall pretty delicious, even though you're only beginners. Were the dark and milk chocolates used in a 1:1 ratio?"

"Yes, they were," Gaku and Tsumugi answered, both in awe of Mrs Izumi's evaluation skills. They had both heard of how she was able to discern minor details of the sweetsmaking process involved just by tasting the final product, but to see that in action was nonetheless highly impressive. 

"I like it," said Mr Izumi simply. "This'll definitely be in the lineup for next season's sweets."

"Thank you!" they cried. Although it was a simple recipe, they had put in so much effort into it, and it felt truly rewarding to receive such high compliments at the end of the day.

Mrs Izumi clasped her hands enthusiastically. "So, Tsumugi-chan, did you have fun?"

"Yes! It was a really amazing experience to be able to make sweets in a patisserie's kitchen!" Tsumugi gushed. "I'm so glad that Gaku-san didn't have any other acquaintances that were free today. Although it's been a great honour to be asked for help from someone like him!"

Gaku had to look away so none of them saw how intensely beet red his face had become. "Glad you enjoyed it. I did, too."

Mr Izumi cleared his throat. "Well, you both have done a very good job. Far exceeding expectations, I must say. Anyway, Gaku drops by here every now and then to help us out, and you're more than welcome to join us whenever we need an extra pair of hands, Takanashi-san. You both make a good team."

 _What? What a lie, lol,_ thought Gaku. He'd never helped out at the store before, Mr Izumi was just pulling that candid-things-spoken-with-a-perfectly-serious-expression move of his again. Not that he minded this time.

Much to their surprise, Tsumugi actually agreed to his request. "I'd love to!"

That's it. He'd forever be indebted to Mr Izumi now.

* * *

"Sure you won't stay for dinner with us, Tsumugi-san?" asked Mrs Izumi sadly as they saw her out.

"I'm really sorry, but I'm afraid I can't," apologised Tsumugi. "I'm having dinner out with my father today."

"Don't worry," Mr Izumi assured. "We understand. Dinnertime is one of the best opportunities for family bonding."

Tsumugi bowed once more, lingering at the entrance. "Thank you for having me, Izumi-otoosan, Izumi-okaasan. I hope I wasn't too much of a trouble. Thank you too, Gaku-san. I really had fun today."

It wasn't really a date they had per se, so Gaku wasn't entirely sure how to respond. He sure wished he could kiss her, but he had sufficient sense not to. Instead, he extended his hand out for a friendly handshake.

To add on to the list of times that Tsumugi had caught him off-guard with her words and actions, she accepted his hand, but then tugged on it so hard that he fell fowards into a hug, very much like how Mrs Izumi had done to Tenn hours ago.

Mrs Izumi's eyes widened and she gave a small squeal. Mr Izumi averted his eyes from the scene.

Then, it was time for her to leave.

Gaku waved and never took his eyes off her as she walked down the street, getting smaller the further away she was from him. Right before she went around the corner, she stopped, turmed back and, noticing that Gaku was still watching her, returned his wave. And then she was gone. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whoop, one more chapter to go. I'm glad I made that choice, I've been starting to get emotionally attached to this fic and now there's more to write about...
> 
> I know this chapter didn't turn out as romantic as it should've been, and I'm really sorry if you were expecting that. That was actually my intention, but I realised once I started writing that I couldn't do it. Lack of personal experience, perhaps? Though that isn't my style in the first place. But I hope this sort of pure comedic fluff works, too. I really had fun writing this.
> 
> I was going to make Gaku screw up a little, but I have more faith in him than that. The alternate plot if he were to fail was for a earpiece to be attached to his ear, where the four people upstairs would instruct him on what to say and do, à la [Ellen DeGeneres and Emma Watson](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3_kOudWmkxE). Side story ideas, perhaps?
> 
> Recipe adapted from: http://www.bearnakedfood.com/2016/10/05/royce-nama-chocolate/


	6. Please be happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Final chapter, for real this time.
> 
> The title of this chapter is the English translation of the title of Gaku's first solo song, 幸せでいて (Shiawase de Ite).

"She just left," informed Iori, peeping out of the second-floor windows. "I expect Yaotome-san will be making his way up here very soon."

 "YOSH!" said Mitsuki loudly. "Don't forget what we've planned to do, okay!"

 Tenn nodded. "Of course not!" replied Ryuu.

 The four of them stared at the door, waiting impatiently for it to open.

* * *

Gaku sighed. She had disappeared from view.

"Now, Gaku-kun," came Mrs Izumi's voice from behind him. "I'm sure your friends must be very excited to know how you have done. Why don't you just join them up in Mitsuki's room?"

"You can always talk to us later, if you wish," assured Mr Izumi.

"Yeah, alright."

As Gaku climbed up the stairs to the Izumis' home, he started to wonder how he should relate to everyone the events of the day. Tenn, Ryuunosuke, and Mitsuki at least would undoubtedly want to know of every single detail, but he didn't really wish to share it all with them. Those moments were specially his and Tsumugi's, and no one else's. He preferred to keep it that way.

All in all, he felt that he could give them a satisfactory answer in three words: _it went well_. He didn't screw up, not even one bit, unlike what everyone was expecting, himself included.

Mitsuki's room was the first one down the hallway right next to the stairs, and upon reaching it he grasped the handle and pushed it downwards and forwards. The door opened to reveal three faces staring expectantly at him, and one facing away from him looking out of the window.

"Hey guys. I'm back-"

 _"♪In the meantime♪,"_ sang Mitsuki, grinning.

 _"♪In the meantime♪,"_ repeated Ryuunosuke, also grinning.

 _"♪Mitsumeru beki wa dareka janai♪"_ The ghost of a smile was on Tenn's face.

Gaku froze at the door, keeping it open with one hand still holding on to the handle, and his eyes widened.

"Wha-"

Some lights flashed.

"Epic expression, get!" Mitsuki cheered behind his phone camera.

Gaku's eyes narrowed. "What's the meaning of this?"

They merely smiled innocently back at him, and Gaku decided that he could only appeal to their one lone source of reason.

"What's the meaning of this," he repeated to the figure by the window, "Izumi-otouto?"

There was a long pause. Iori was still looking out of the window.

 _"♪Anata wo omou to♪,"_ he sang quietly.

Everyone else burst into long held-back laughter.

Gaku's face turned extremely red. "Oh god, not you too!?"

Iori turned away from the window, his face equally red. "I'm sorry! They made me do it! I was blackmailed into this!"

"I didn't think you'd be one who'd succumb to blackmail," replied Gaku tersely.

"Nii-san said he'd show TRIGGER what's behind my Forbidden Door if I refused to comply with their plans..." Iori sulked.

"...Fair enough."

Gaku remembered the very first day he had went to Fonte Chocolat, as part of his work experience training. He'd taken the opportunity after he was done for the day to sneak a peek at the Izumi brothers' rooms, but Mitsuki had warned him never to open the leftmost door of Iori's wardrobe. He hadn't the foggiest idea what on earth could be behind there that Iori was so desperate to keep as a secret, but although he was dying to find out he decided against it. It was worth it _not_ to incur the wrath of the coolest, sharpest member of IDOLiSH7 after all.

"So," he turned to address every single one of them in the room. "You don't mean to tell me you guys were spying on us through some wicked means?"

Tenn looked at him with amusement, a finger on his chin. "If you call a little GoPro we snuck into a bag of flour in the dry ingredients cupboard 'wicked', then yes, I suppose so."

Gaku grasped at his hair exasperatedly. "I'm not saying that the camera is wicked, no, I'm saying that you guys are!" This was an all-out invasion of privacy! Couldn't he at least keep the memories of this special day all to himself? Oh, the thought of them seeing all the embarrassing things they did together. Most of it was just having fun, but they heard them singing! He buried his face in his hands out of sheer mortification. And if they'd heard them singing, then was it possible that they...?

He peered at them through a gap he made between his fingers on his face. "Did you guys hear every single word we spoke in there?"

"How else do you think Mom managed to come in right when you needed to take a photo so badly?" asked Mitsuki, as if the whole thing were common sense.

"You guys _sent_ her in there?" questioned Gaku incredulously.

Ryuunosuke scratched his head, grinning sheepishly. "Yeah, we did..."

"Although no, we didn't manage to hear every single thing," admitted Iori. "When you both started having a conversation over the hot chocolate you made during the wait, you both were calm rather than in a state of high spirits, and hence spoke softly enough not for anything to be captured on the camera, fortunately." 

Gaku heaved a huge sigh of relief. If there was anything that he should be the most worried about, it was this, and it felt really good to have his troubles assuaged. He also liked the way that Iori had put it to him, as if he were on his side.

However, there was most definitely at least one person not on his side.

"Yeah, but that's why we decided to go down and have a peep on you two in person!" Mitsuki mentioned.

"What?" said Gaku.

"If you call a twenty-minute long peep a 'peep', then yeah," Tenn added.

"WHAT!?" yelled Gaku.

"I tried to stop them!" Iori exclaimed. "I really did! But Nii-san said he'd show TRIGGER what's behind my Forbidden Door if I refused to go down with them!"

Gaku was starting to get convinced that behind the forbidden door lay some form of black magic or curse, if not something worse.

"What did you guys hear?" he asked quietly, but with extreme force.

Ryuunosuke laughed. "Only an extremely serious debate lasting more than twenty minutes on whether melon soda would be a juice without the fizz, and whether banana milk was a fitting name for a drink that wasn't directly squeezed out of bananas."

"That was already ongoing when we started watching you both, and was still ongoing when we left," added Iori.

"If you consider the fact that no one else actually cares about the answers to those questions besides the two of you, the both of you actually make a good pair," Tenn pointed out.

Gaku relaxed. Everyone tried to hold in their laughter, but it was him who ended up laughing first.

"I suppose if that's the only thing you've heard, it's fine." 

* * *

"Eight points," said Mitsuki.

"Ten points," said Ryuunosuke. 

"Nine points," said Tenn.

"Ten points," said Iori.

The seven of them, Gaku, Tenn, Ryuu and the Izumi family were gathered around a table at the family restaurant down the corner from Fonte Chocolat. Since Tsumugi had turned down the Izumis' request for dinner, they had instead asked the members of TRIGGER to join them for dinner. This place was one that they adored, having both the Japanese-style dishes that Mrs Izumi preferred and the Western-style dishes that were more to Mr Izumi's liking.

Upon noticing their company today, the waitress had considerately led them to a table in a private room, away from the prying eyes of the general public. Gaku marvelled at how professional the staff were, not even batting an eye at the fact that TRIGGER was right in front of them, but he supposed it wouldn't be surprising since Iori and Mitsuki were regular customers anyway - this meant that they were already used to the patronage of celebrities.

They had already made their orders and were waiting for their food to arrive when Mitsuki had suggested each of them give an evaluation of Gaku's performance today in the kitchen with Tsumugi, on a score of zero to ten.

"Damn, guys!" exclaimed Mitsuki. "Now y'all are just making me feel bad for giving the lowest points! Or rather, Iori! I didn't think you'd be that liberal with the scoring! Ten, really? Coming from you!?"

"Yes, ten," answered Iori at once. "Yaotome-san made Manager laugh, make jokes with her, and essentially established that she was in the friendzone. That's for the benefit of both him and IDOLiSH7."

"But that's ten out of ten for friendship, and zero out of ten for romance, right..." pointed out Ryuunosuke sadly.

"That's right."

Mitsuki gestured an angry fist at his younger brother. "Iori! You idiot! Look what you've done! Yaotome's looking all depressed now!"

Gaku was, indeed, staring disappointedly into the table, as if he'd been rejected by Tsumugi weeks ago, and the prior events of today didn't even get to happen.

"Reconsider your answer again, Iori, I'll come back to you later!" ordered Mitsuki angrily. "Next, Kujo!"

"Sorry?"

"Why nine points?" Mitsuki clarified.

"Because I'm _Kujo_."

Gaku slammed his fist onto the table. "Huh!? How about ten points because you're _Tenn_?" he argued.

"If you put it that way then perhaps, but no, I was serious when I said 9," Tenn laughed. "Sure, you managed to successfully give her the time of her life while enjoying yourself to the fullest, and that could almost warrant a ten out of ten, full marks."

"Then why not?"

"Where's the outcome?" asked Tenn lightly. "You guys had fun, and then so what? Like Izumi Iori said, that's what friends do. You didn't end up differentiating yourself from everyone else like you intended to, after all."

Gaku smirked. Trump card time. "Oh, but I did, and I have witnesses."

Ryuunosuke whooped. "YA MEAN YA GUYS KISSED-"

"NO WE DIDN'T!" shouted Gaku. "...but we did hug."

"Seriously?" Tenn raised his eyebrows, skeptical.

Mr Izumi nodded. "They did. Specifically speaking, _she_ did, right at the entrance just before she was about to leave. She hugged him in the same manner like how my wife hugged you this morning - by making him fall into her arms during a handshake."

In Gaku's opinion, Tenn's facial expression was a glorious sight to behold. As were those of everyone else. But Tenn's the most.

"...You've outdone yourself, Gaku, if she really was the one who initiated it," he praised reluctantly, sliding back into his seat. "...Eleven points."

"Kujo!' yelled Mitsuki loudly. "That's all very well, but it's a score out of ten, you know! I'm just gonna assume that's what you meant! Next, Tsunashi-san! How come ten?"

Ryuunosuke grinned cheekily. "Because I'm _Tsunashi_."

"And the real reason?" asked Tenn in the midst of everyone else's laughter, unimpressed.

"Is there a reason?" Ryuunosuke returned the question, confused. "I think he did everything the best he could, and everything turned out really well, right? Seeing how the both of them had lots of fun and got closer and all. Is there any reason why I should give anything less than full marks?"

"Perhaps Nii-san can answer that question," said Iori, pointedly looking over at the one person in the group who hadn't given a reasoning behind his score.

"Shut up, zero points!" said Mitsuki agitatedly. He paused, and then was suddenly seized by an uncontrollable bout of laughter. "His face, his face!"

Soon enough, everyone was laughing, too. Iori was staring into blank space in a temporary state of shock.

"Look at him!" cried Iori's very own mother in tears of laughter. "'Zero points'! I'm sure no one's ever had the chance to call him that in his life!"

Gaku did the most sensible thing he thought of doing at that point in time that actually wasn't very sensible at all, and whipped out his phone. His camera clicked. "Epic expression, get!" he shouted.

"Yaotome-san, if you don't delete that photo immediately I'll really rate your performance today as zero," blushed Iori furiously. Gaku complied for now. He could retrieve it from his phone's 'Recently Deleted' function later, anyway.

After all the laughter had died down, Mitsuki began his explanation. "Eight points out of ten because of a two-point deduction, Yaotome. One point because making chocolates together means you'll not get any back when White Day actually rolls around, a large compromise. And another point because we helped you so much but you didn't leave any chocolates for us!"

"The first one was fair enough," accepted Gaku. "But I'd not mind that if we could make them together today. Also, you can take the other one back. Though Tsumugi believed that of the four boxes it was one each for the both of us and two for your parents, it's actually one for your parents and one for all of you."

"Whoa, really!?" asked Mitsuki and Ryuunosuke, sparkly-eyed.

"Yes, they're with me," said Mr Izumi, noticing a waiter coming their way with their orders. "But let's open them after dinner, shall we?"

Dinner was, for Mitsuki and Mrs Izumi, the tonkatsu set meal, while Mr Izumi and Gaku had decided to go for the hamburg curry doria. Iori had gone for the mentaiko fettucine, Tenn the saba fish set, and Ryuunosuke the curry rice. With the arrival of the dishes, the conversation topic moved on to something else.

"Gaku-kun, tell me all about how you managed to ask her out, won't you?" Mrs Izumi implored. "I've heard the story already, but I don't think I'll ever believe it if you don't relate it to me yourself."

Mrs Izumi had sprung the question on him. He had absolutely no idea how to answer her, but Tenn did it for him.

"He's never going to relate it personally to you, Izumi-okaasan," he said, after swallowing a mouthful of rice. "The guy's too chicken to admit that he actually successfully asked a girl out with that horribly lousy tactic of his." Tenn looked Gaku square in the face. "Or are you actually a man?"

 _Bastard_. He just wanted Gaku to embarrass himself, didn't he? But it was too late. Mr Izumi, too, had paused his conversation with Ryuunosuke, leaning in towards them with extreme interest.

Gaku supposed he _should_ tell them the whole story, especially considering how they were the ones who had made everything today possible in the first place. Also, he _was_ a man.

"To be honest," he began. "I myself can't even believe I'd managed to ask her out successfully. There were so many things that made me believe things would end up going in the opposite direction.

"First of all, Tsumugi's always been putting up a professional image in front of everyone, never agreeing to go out alone with just one other male idol, much less a male idol who isn't under her management. As much as I wished for everything to be a success, the circumstances just seemed so bleak considering that. And also considering the fact that I've been turned down before."

Mrs Izumi's shoulders drooped. "You've been turned down by her before?"

"No," clarified Tenn hastily. "But that was when you asked her out as Yamamura-san, not as yourself."

The next question Mrs Izumi asked was one easily predicted. "Who's Yamamura-san?"

"Oh, that's the name Gaku adopts when he works part-time at this soba sh-MMMMMPHH!" Gaku hastily shut Ryuunosuke's mouth for his own sake before it was too late, but too late it was.

" _Now_ we know," said Mitsuki loudly to Iori, nodding.

"Now _you_ know," said Iori quietly to his pasta, nodding.

Gaku cleared his throat. "Anyway. That was one thing, and another was that I was already so nervous, and I hadn't prepared to speak to her directly at all, and while making the call four other people had all their eyes and ears on me. I was so tense, and it was hard to talk to her calmly."

Tenn didn't even bother masking his grin at this point. "So what did you say?" he crooned.

Fine, if that son of a bitch wanted it that badly Gaku would give it to him.

"Hey, Tsumugi?" he asked with a straight face, setting down his fork and knife and directing the question to Mrs Izumi. "Assuming I actually gave you chocolates, would you reciprocate them? Yes? Cool. In that case, how about we just make them together to save the trouble?"

Mrs Izumi was a wonderful audience. "Oh my!" she gasped. "You didn't really!"

"It's amazing how Takanashi-san actually agreed," Mr Izumi marvelled.

Gaku resumed another bite of his hamburg. "I couldn't believe it myself, either. How did you both come to know of the way I asked her out, though?"

"Apparently everyone was suffering from a serious case of secondhand embarrassment afterwards," explained Mr Izumi. "Did you three know?" he directed the question at TRIGGER. "The night our sons returned from your place, my wife and I were convinced Iori had gotten slapped by someone."

Tenn's eyebrows shot up. "Huh, how did that happen?"

"Dad," said Iori warningly. "Don't tell them about _that_ , now."

"Y'all remember how Iori pressed his hands into his face after Yaotome said that right?" quipped Mitsuki. "He did it so hard, red handprints were left on his face even after we reached home."

"Nii-san!"

"Exactly!" laughed their mother. "It was only after we saw the positioning of the handprints that we figured out only he could have done that to himself, and so after that we asked them what happened that resulted in such a thing."

Iori covered his face with his hands again. "Stop it, Mum!"

"While we're on the subject of Izumi Iori, I've got something very interesting about him to share," announced Tenn all of a sudden.

"Ooh," said Ryuu, rubbing his hands in excitement. "Does this have to do with your hour-long disappearance after we went to spy on Gaku and Tsumugi in the kitchen?"

Tenn smiled evilly. "Indeed. Seeing how he failed to stop our attempt to spy on the two of them, Mitsuki's blackmail outcome would not come into fruition. I took the liberty after that to sneak to his room to open the Forbidden Door."

Iori screamed, and his parents had to remind him harshly that he was in a public place and ought not to make such loud noises.

"That took a whole hour?" questioned Mitsuki incredulously.

"What on earth was inside?" Ryuunosuke wondered.

"I could have just opened and closed it, but unfortunately it was stuffed to the brim with soft toys, and everything fell out. It took an hour to stuff everything back in."

Gaku whistled. "Wow."

"I've reconsidered, Yaotome-san," said Iori hastily, in a desperate attempt to change the topic. "Ten points."

Mr Izumi came to his son's rescue. "Is it a serious ten this time?"

Iori nodded gratefully. "Yes, even romantically. I know I sung it as a joke just now, but despite the atmosphere being mostly a friendly one, the part where you both were singing 'Shiawase de Ite', your very own song, her favourite song, as a duet made up for it by a lot. It was a good idea to get her to sing with you rather than having sung it alone yourself to her, and that alone would already be worth ten points."

"Thanks, Izumi-otouto." Gaku gave a gentle smile. "Somehow getting a ten from you really seems like a bigger deal than getting a ten from the rest, or even an eleven from Tenn."

"Don't think too much of it. I was just giving you what you deserved." The words were spoken passively, but Iori had a soft smile on his face, too.

The conversations from then on were sparse, as everyone tucked into their dinners before they got cold. When they did occur, however, they were all of various topics at random, between different people. Tenn gladly had enough sense not to pick a fight with the youngest Izumi in the presence of his parents, even when their opinions differed. Ryuunosuke hit it off with the Izumis every bit as well as Gaku had predicted him to. Gaku himself had fun as well, and he found that he enjoyed the relaxing dinner very much.

There was just one small thing.

"I can't believe you'd be a fan of soft toys, Iori-kun," commented Ryuunosuke. "If you're into cute animals in real life too, there's [this really cute video of a hamster](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h-0HRs0FY2U) that Gaku showed me some weeks ag-MMMPH!"

"You can't," ordered Gaku forcefully.

Ryuunosuke gave him a blank expression. "Why not?"

"I...uhh...my mobile data's reached its limit," Gaku lied.

"Oh."

Luckily for them, Iori merely raised his eyebrows at them, perplexed, then resumed twirling his pasta on his plate with his fork, without a word.

* * *

➖Three Weeks Later - Thursday, 14 March➖

Once Gaku returned home from work and shut the door securely behind him, he kicked off his shoes at the entrance, not even bothering to arrange them nicely, choosing instead to make his way excitedly into his room, tightly clutching a gray gift bag with both hands.

Tsumugi had dropped by Yaotome Productions earlier in the day, to hand out her obligatory chocolates for a White Day as had been the tradition for the previous years. Unlike the usual times where she had always used a pastel pink bag for everyone, however, the bags she had prepared for TRIGGER this time were coded by the members' colours. Tenn and Ryuunosuke were given pink and navy bags respectively, and Gaku received his gray one.

"Yours is different from everyone else's," she had informed him in a whisper as she handed him his bag. "Open it only when you get back."

Right after she had left, Ryuunosuke, unable to hold in his excitement, had opened his on the spot, and then somehow successfully convinced Tenn to open his too. Both of them had received a boxed assortment of chocolates each that must have come from a relatively high-end chocolatier. Gaku wondered how much she had spent in total assuming she had IDOLiSH7 and Re:vale those chocolates as well. Twelve boxes of those sure had to come with a hefty price tag.

The both of them were going to make Gaku open his bag then and there as well, until he shared that his was supposedly different from the others, according to Tsumugi.

"Open it at home, then," Tenn had told him, "and feel that you're in the moment while you do."

"Just tell us what's the difference tomorrow or something," Ryuunosuke had agreed.

 _Surprisingly understanding friends given they had watched my entire semi-date unfold,_ Gaku had thought. But he was grateful to them.

Sitting on the edge of his bed, he held his breath and checked the contents of his gift bag.

There were two boxes. Gaku took out the first, familiar-looking one, a brown box with a red ribbon tied around it. This was the same assortment of chocolates that Tenn and Ryuunosuke had received.

The second box was half the size, and half as tall. It was white with a red lid, to which a pink envelope was attached. This must be what was different from everyone else's.

Fingers trembling in anticipation, he fumbled with the pink envelope for a minute, before releasing a note written on a coffee-coloured piece of scented paper from within it, folded into quarters. Unfolding it with extreme care, he began to read.

 

_Dear Gaku-san,_

_Thank you so much once more for inviting me to make chocolates with you over at Fonte Chocolat the other day. I can't say this enough, but I truly had lots of fun. It would be wonderful if there could be other similar chances like this one in the future once again._

_I know that you told me we were making those nama chocolates together simultaneously as your Valentine's gift to me and my White gift to you, but I still would feel more than just a little guilty if I were to give everyone a box of obligatory chocolates today and leave yours out, so here's a box for you as well._

_Something more than obligatory just for you, though - I've tried adapting the recipe that we made the other day and whipped up another batch of nama chocolates, specifically with you in mind this time. I've taste-tested some of it myself and it was pretty good to me, so I hope that it's to your liking. I'm quite confident that you'll enjoy it more than I do, but please let me know of what you think nonetheless, once you've tried it. I'll be waiting._ _U_ ・ _x_ ・ _U_

_A very happy White Day to you!_

♥ _, Takanashi Tsumugi_

 

Gaku's eyes ran over the words in the letter from top to bottom twice more, then he lifted the lid of the box curiously. It opened to reveal a rectangle of white chocolate cut into little squares and dusted with green tea powder. Taped to the inside of the lid was a little wooden pick, and the words 'Nama Choco, White Matcha Edition!' were written just above it in Tsumugi's neat handwriting.

"You remembered." Inexplicably, he felt himself begin to tear up. "White chocolates because I mentioned that they were my favourite, huh? How thoughtful."

Detaching the wooden pick from the lid, he picked up a square of chocolate and popped it into his mouth, savouring the sweetness that slowly spread out within.

Gaku smiled. They were delicious. Of course they were. How could they not be? After all they were handmade by _Tsumugi_ , just for him and him alone.

Reaching for his phone on the table, he entered her number, once again from memory, and pressed dial.

Even if Tsumugi hadn't requested it of him, he would have undoubtedly called her to let her know how he felt about those chocolates.

Because those chocolates for him were, in _her_ very own words, more than obligatory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's over! 
> 
> I hope that you all liked the ending! Actually, this whole story in general. I've mentioned this time and again but the only romance I'm half-confident at is comedy, so at the very least hopefully it was enjoyable. I've kind of started growing attached to this fic and am sad that it's ended. GakuTsumu is probably my greatest (if only) ship in IDOLiSH7, and it was great to end up writing something like this. The Izumi parents, too, I love, although most of how they behave are just headcanons based on that one rabbit chat they appeared in.
> 
> A huge thank you to all of you who've left kudos or comments on here, or just generally stuck with me all the way to the very end. I've never ever written anything on such a tight schedule before, if on a schedule at all, and knowing that there are readers out there constantly looking forward to the next chapter really fueled me to complete this. :) 
> 
> Feel free to talk to me on tumblr at @stamfordraff. All are welcome :D
> 
> (By the way, I'm still looking for Iori/Tenn/Ryuu's bnOURS! RabbiTVs, so if you do have them please let me know, I will be eternally grateful...)
> 
> Till next time!


End file.
